In line with the continuous growth and development of the Dubai International Financial Centre’s financial innovation ecosystem, the DIFC FinTech Hive, announced today the commencement of the 2019 edition of its accelerator programme. The third edition of the programme launched by the region’s first financial technology accelerator received an overwhelming response of over 425 applications from across the world, including Asia, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

This year’s programme will feature a larger pool of start-ups, having increased by around 50% to 31 this year, from 22 in 2018, covering a broader scope to include FinTech, InsurTech, RegTech and Islamic FinTech. The finalists consist of 15 start-ups specialising in the FinTech sector, four specialising in the Islamic FinTech sector, ten in the InsurTech sector, and two in the RegTech sector.

The selected were evaluated by the programme’s partners, who made an assessment based on set criteria including business proposition viability, applicability of technology to the region, potential to benefit from the programme, followed by extensive one-on-one interviews.

With its broad remit, FinTech Hive continues to lead the region’s efforts in providing an enabling environment for innovative solutions to contribute to the development of the financial services industry, in line with Dubai Plan 2021 and DIFC’s 2024 Strategy.

“Innovation and financial technology are at the core of our strategy at DIFC and FinTech Hive is an extension of how our enabling environment is helping young, promising start-ups to disrupt the sector. We are incredibly pleased to see the overwhelming response received for the third cohort of the accelerator programme, which is a testament to our commitment to shape the future of the regional financial landscape. With Dubai recognised as one of the world’s top ten FinTech hubs, and the leader in the MEASA region, DIFC is well placed to drive this growth and serve as a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to access these vast opportunities,” said Raja Al Mazrouei, Executive Vice President of DIFC FinTech Hive. “We are looking forward to another successful edition of the programme and wish the finalists all the very best,” she added.

The accelerator programme consists of a three-month curriculum in which a group of selected finalists work closely with stakeholders and representatives from various fields to create innovative and forward-looking solutions that aim to address the evolving needs of the region’s financial services industry. The 21 participating partners who will mentor the start-ups include Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), Emirates Islamic, Emirates NBD, Finablr, HSBC, National Bank of Fujairah, Noor Bank, Riyad Bank, Standard Chartered, and Visa, as well as associate financial institution partners Arab Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB).

InsurTech start-ups will work with leading insurance players, AXA Gulf, Noor Takaful (Ethical Insurance), Zurich Insurance Company Ltd (DIFC), AIG, Insurance House, Cigna Insurance Middle East S.A.L. and MetLife. In addition, this year’s finalists will be supported by strategic partner Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) and digital transformation partner Etisalat.

The programme will culminate in an ‘Investor Day’, offering the participating start-ups an opportunity to showcase their technologies and achievements to prospective partners and investors.

The finalists selected for the 2019 cycle of the FinTech Hive accelerator programme are:

AECA (Singapore)

AECA provides A.I. enterprise solutions for healthcare, helping reduce costs, maximize revenue and efficiency.

AuditXPRT Limited (UK)

AIXPRT works with clients across four continents to reduce the time, effort and cost of assuring compliance and risk by up to 90% using unique tailored AI solutions.

Azakaw (UAE)

Azakaw enables financial services firms globally to comply with regulations and improve profitability.

BodyO (UAE)

BodyO is unique Health and Wellness holistic solution pioneering 4P Health care: Predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory. It aims to reduce exorbitant health expenditures by simplifying the patient journey and practicing prevention rather than care.

Clear Quote (India)

ClearQuote app uses AI to provide accurate estimates covering repair, repainting and replacement costs of damages on a car.

Crayon Data (Singapore)

Crayon Data an ambitious, fast-growing AI startup; created maya.ai, a patented, cloud-based AI mark-up language platform. It enables enterprises that operate in the physical world to recapture ownership of customers and drive customer journey, using AI led digital personalisation.

DAPI (UAE)

Dapi is an open banking API that helps Fintech applications to connect instantly with banks across MENA to initiate payments.

Eazy Financial Services (Bahrain)

Eazy Financial brings biometric technologies and innovative solutions to the banking and financial services industries utilizing a new era of secured and convenient transaction experience.

FinFirst (Kuwait)

FinFirst is the region’s first digital lending aggregator that pairs SMEs with banks and NBFIs fully automating KYC/AML, loan fulfillment and credit scoring. It significantly curtails the laborious processing cost of loan applications and generates new customer channels for lenders, increasing transparency and simplicity for borrowers.

Hakbah (Saudi Arabia)

Hakbah is an Islamic Fintech startup specialized in cooperative savings with a mission to renovate and digitize traditional financial practices.

HelloGold (Malaysia)

HelloGold is the world’s first Shariah compliant gold mobile application that enables clients to save and redeem physical gold from their phone.

i3systems (India)

i3systems is an Indian AI startup specializing in medico-financial data science, helping insurers enhance customer experience and reduce costs.

Intain FinTech (Singapore)

IN-D is an AI Powered Op-Bot that digitizes, classifies and reads documents in image form thereby making business operations faster, cheaper and accurate.

IslamiChain (UAE)

IslamiChain leverages Blockchain Technology to address challenges that currently limit Islamic giving’s effectiveness.

Jubi.ai (UAE)

jubi.ai is a superbot specialist for financial services globally with an industry-leading NLP, conversational RPA and Human+AI self-learning system. With JubiMoney, we are taking the cause of financial inclusion ahead in Asia.

KASKO (UK)

KASKO designs, launches and scales digital insurance products within 4 weeks without re-prioritisation of internal IT.

Krowd (UK)

Krowd helps banks improve customer loyalty and spend by analysing card spend and sending cardholders highly targeted offers.

LEAP FinTech (UAE)

LEAP FinTech provides building technology solutions to scale, safeguard, and speed up account opening in financial institutions.

Medyear (USA)

Medyear makes it easy for consumers to take control of their health information; Medyear provides a consumer health information exchange, with connectivity across a million medical professionals, and hundreds of health systems.

Monimove (UAE)

Monimove is a FinTech introducing B2B Supply chain finance platform solving the Credit Operational Risk for Gov. Banks with their clients.

NEO MENA Technologies (UAE)

NEO MENA is leading Fintech Company focused on digital wealth management solutions to empower incumbent financial institutions to distribute products & services digitally.

Okanii (Canada)

Okanii is the global standard of digitized value. Our platform brings true efficiency, scalability, security/trust and interoperability to the banking and payments world for every asset type and use-case.

Prime Factor (Belgium)

Prime Factor is a niche consulting and software firm that focuses on the common ground between I.T., actuarial, pensions and insurance.

Seyula.io (UAE)

Seyula provides a platform that enables applications to connect to their users bank accounts.

Statys (UAE)

Statys delivers API-first microservices for loan origination and risk analytics, powered by artificial intelligence.

Upswot (Ukraine)

Upswot is the white-label onboarding platform designed to make the paperless loan & insurance application process; On top of that, to automate underwriting, pre-scoring, and ongoing tracking of all crucial events based on data from ERP, accountancy and eCommerce systems SME use.

UPUP (Czech Republic)

UPUP is a B2B solution for banks, who want to expand a customer base and get children as new clients. This is the payment card for a kid and a mobile application to learn finance with gamification. UPUP helps to acquire new customers from their childhood and keeps all the family in one bank.

Uqudo (UAE)

Uqudo provides frictionless customer experience from Paperless/ Formless on boarding to fully mange customer interactions.

Wally (USA)

Wally makes it easy for people to track all their bank accounts and bills, set budgets, organize documents, and sync joint accounts.

Wethaq Capital Markets (UAE)

Wethaq is the fintech platform for the structuring, primary issuance, administration, and distribution of securities in sukuk capital markets.

ZappyAI (UK)

Zappy provides 30 times faster Robotic Process Automation and believes in harvesting of full potential to create the faster competitive edge for businesses.