Dubai International Financial Centre, the leading global financial centre and the top innovation hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region has welcomed global payment technology provider Adyen, a company that has a market capitalisation of €66.4 billion and processed over €303.6 billion worth of transactions in 2020.

Dutch firm Adyen announced their expansion into the Middle East in November 2020. The company selected the DIFC as the location for its regional headquarters, due to the Centre’s regional reach and comprehensive ecosystem. Expanding to Dubai complements Adyen’s presence in other leading financial hubs across the world such as New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.

The move will enable Adyen’s existing merchant base to launch operations in the region seamlessly, whilst providing merchants from the region with frictionless access to the full strength of the Adyen platform.

The Centre’s comprehensive financial ecosystem continues to attract global payments and technology players to the region in order to scale via accessing MEASA markets. Adyen will join the region’s broadest and deepest community of growth stage start-ups, established financial services companies, venture capital and educational entities that are working together to create a bright future across financial and economic sectors.

Arif Amiri, Chief Executive Officer, DIFC Authority said: “We are pleased that Adyen has selected DIFC as their regional office for the Middle East. They are joining the region’s largest, most innovative and forward-thinking community of more than 2,500 financial related businesses who are working with us to shape the future of the industry. We are confident that our connectivity, ecosystem, infrastructure, laws and regulations will help them expand successfully across the region.”

“Being part of DIFC’s ecosystem will help Adyen build out our offering to support the needs of both international as well as local merchants”, said Sander Maertens, Head of Middle East at Adyen. “Opportunities in the Middle East region are prevalent. We are looking forward to growing in the region and DIFC was the natural choice for Adyen.”