By Rafiq Vayani
DUBAI: Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading financial hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA), has partnered with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), the world’s largest non-profit entrepreneurial organisation, to help Indian FinTechs scale their businesses across the region. Throughout a two-day programme, DIFC met with 17 FinTech startups from Mumbai to understand their business models and provide tailored solutions to support their growth in fast-growing emerging markets.
The comprehensive DIFC FinTech ecosystem includes two highly successful accelerator programmes run by DIFC FinTech Hive and Startupbootcamp, a USD 100 million FinTech fund, subsidised licensing options, fit-for-purpose regulation and access to a financial community of over 2,100 regional and global institutions, of which more than 80 are FinTech-related companies.
Salmaan Jaffery, Chief Business Development Officer, DIFC Authority commented: “It’s a pleasure to be partnering with TiE Mumbai and to engage directly with a number of promising and innovative Indian FinTech firms. Our meetings have allowed us to highlight the opportunities within the MEASA region and the ways in which they can capitalise on these to scale their business.
“Since our establishment in 2004, we have attracted a number of Indian banks and financial institutions to the DIFC, and in recent years we see similar interest from Indian FinTechs, which account for approximately 10 per cent of our FinTech ecosystem. We expect this number will grow, as demonstrated by the incredibly positive interest we are already witnessing and as we continue to strengthen our ties with the Indian market,” he continued.
Atul Nishar, President, TiE Mumbai said: “As a part of our global connect program, TiE Mumbai has partnered with DIFC to create an access to knowledge, markets, funds and talent in those regions. These partnerships present excellent growth opportunities for Mumbai Startups. Dubai and India have deeply embedded commercial, trade and cultural ties and today this relationship goes from strength to strength.”
