Dubai’s DIFC invests in four fintech startups via its $100m fund

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has invested in four fintech startups via its accelerator programme, it announced on June 8.

The investment, part of its $100m FinTech Fund to help establish and upscale fintech companies, reinforces DIFC’s commitment to drive advancements in the financial services sector.

The DIFC FinTech Fund invested in “FlexxPay”, a cloud-based B2B fintech employee benefits platform allowing access to earned income; “Go Rise”, a startup building a financial services platform for 250 million global migrants, helping them gain access to financial products in domicile as well as home country; “NOW Money” offering payroll services to Gulf-based companies, and app-based accounts with physical debit card and remittance options for each of their lower-income workers; and “Sarwa”, a robo-advisory wealth management firm.

Arif Amiri, chief executive officer, DIFC Authority said: “Our position as one of the world’s top ten FinTech hubs is strengthened by making investments in startups such as those we have announced today. The DIFC FinTech Fund accelerates the development of impactful FinTech firms, taking them a step further toward capitalising on the strong growth opportunities available in the region. Through investing and providing the region’s most comprehensive platform, we can drive innovation across MEASA’s financial services sector.”

“We are grateful to receive the trust and confidence from DIFC’s FinTech Fund, and we look forward to offering our services as a technology provider to the wider business community in the region. We strongly believe that in the near future everyone will have access to their earned income whenever they want. FlexxPay brings such an experience to companies and their employees today to build a truly global company with real impact on society and the overall economy of a country,” said Michael Truschler, CEO of FlexxPay.

Padmini Gupta, CEO of Go Rise noted: “We are excited to be partnering with DIFC and MEVP in building a unique global migrant banking platform. Migrants in the GCC earn $150bn a year and we are helping them better manage that income through partnerships with institutions regionally and in migrant home countries. Migrants represent one of the region’s biggest assets and in Go Rise we want to build the global migrant financial services leader.”

“We are delighted to welcome DIFC to the NOW Money family and look forward to sharing more on our partnership throughout 2020,” said Ian Dillon, co-founder of NOW Money.

Mark Chahwan, CEO of Sarwa added: “Sarwa was born in the DIFC, as one of the companies in the first cohort of the DIFC FinTech Hive and was the first firm to be granted an Innovation Testing License. Today, Sarwa continues its growth and expansion yet again with the help and support of DIFC. We are thrilled to have such a strategic partner/investor that was part of our journey from the beginning. This is a testament to the team’s hard work to make smart investing available to the region. We are continuously improving our features and adding new products to our existing compelling list to help everyone build for a better future.”

Read: Over 100 fintech firms register in Dubai’s DIFC since 2018