Dubai International Financial Centre calls for fintech start-ups
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is seeking applications for its FinTech Hive at DIFC accelerator programme.
The 12-week programme is designed to help early and growth-stage firms accelerate product and business development by gaining exposure to financial institution executives. Successful applicants will be offered the opportunity to develop, test and modify their innovations in collaboration with representatives from DIFC Authority, Accenture, Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Visa, Emirates NBD and Mashreq.
The programme will also provide access to mentorship from technology partners such as Facebook and Envestnet | Yodlee. Facebook will run an independent mentorship workshop for start-ups, providing advice on monetisation, growth and engagement, development and marketing tools, and analytics. While Envestnet | Yodlee will provide developers with access to Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to build financial applications and services.
Arif Amiri, CEO at DIFC Authority, says the hive is “aligned” with the UAE National Innovation Strategy and Dubai Plan 2021, which aims to position Dubai as “among the smartest cities in the world”.
According to DIFC, fintech is set to grow to $150 billion globally in the next three to five years, and the UAE is currently only tapping into 1% of this investment.
Initial selection will be based on “maturity, life stage, market traction and financing profiles”. Applicants will need to have a “well-defined” prototype or service implemented in at least one market and will be looking at growing into the MEASA region.
The programme will culminate in up to ten participants presenting their solutions at a demo day to venture capitalists and financial industry executives.
More information can be found here. Applications close on 28 May 2017.
