Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has met with fintech start-ups from around the world to explore potential collaboration in areas including Islamic fintech, mobile payments, artificial intelligence, SME finance and blockchain-based trade finance.
This one-on-one pitch session between fintech start-ups and ADIB’s senior executives and digital banking experts is part of a ‘speed meeting’ organized in partnership with DIFC FinTech Hive, the Dubai-based accelerator program. This event is one both entities have been co-organizing for five years running.
None of the start-ups were named, however, IFN Fintech understands that six were from Egypt, the US, the UK, Singapore and Czech Republic while two were from the UAE. Successful pitches may lead to a collaboration with ADIB to create solutions to complement the bank’s evolving digital offering.
“ADIB’s ambition is to become the world’s most innovative Islamic bank and partnering with leading fintechs both from the UAE and other markets is a key part of our strategy. We very much hope to explore how these kinds of innovations can be made available to our customers and clients at scale,” said Philip King, the global head of retail at ADIB.