Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has approved its second batch of Regulatory Laboratory (Reglab) participants comprising 11 local and international FinTech startups.

ADGM said the successful participants, who were selected from a pool of 22 applications, are now admitted within the Financial Services Regulatory Authority’s (FSRA) framework to further develop and test their FinTech innovation.

This announcement coincides with the FinTech Abu Dhabi Event which opened today (October 22) in the UAE capital.  

The 11 ADGM Reglab participants offer an impressive range of innovations from nine countries. These are:

*CreditScript (Mauritius): It is the first private credit investment platform in the UAE. Using the latest technology it connects institutional investors to online loan originators across the globe in consumer, student, SME and real estate segments from a single investment platform providing non-correlated fixed income. With a unique combination of structured finance experience and machine learning technology, the firm help institutional investors build bespoke, robo-advisor and/or smart auto-invest portfolios to diversify their risk across lending platforms whilst being a strategic partner for selected loan originators seeking to broaden their funding options

*Chynge (Singapore):  AI-powered expert compliance, keeping the global banking system safe from the damaging effects of illicit monies. Chynge is developing machine learning technology which will be able to map patterns of behaviour and derive actionable insight for the purposes of transaction surveillance, in order to manage risk, reduce costs and ensure quality compliance for anyone in the business of moving money.

*Equichain (UK): At the intersection of ICOs and IPOs, EQX expects to be the first regulated exchange of its kind and the market infrastructure of choice for global cryptographic-IPOs. It uses blockchain technology to empower investors and redefine (primary and secondary) capital markets.

Halalah (Saudi Arabia): A FinTech innovation company having its flagship product “HalalaH”, an integrated GCC-based payment platform comprising an e-wallet that enables user-friendly peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant daily expenditure payments (grocery, petrol, food…), in addition to providing offline merchants (especially SME’s) the opportunity to manage and control their cash-flow cycle by accepting payments as well as directly paying suppliers using a single homogeneous platform.

*NewBridge (UAE): A B2B2C Wealth technology platform providing sophisticated robo advisory platform, data aggregation and analytics engine (Canopy), behavioural finance based digital risk profiling solution (Neuroprofiler) to banks, asset managers and FI’s in the region. It is in a joint venture with a France-based Robo platform, Fundshop and has Mesitis (Singapore) and Neuroprofiler (France) as strategic partners.

*Nymcard (Lebanon): NymCard helps everyone get access instantly and securely to payment cards enabling them to be part of the digital economy and reduce cash on delivery in online commerce. NymCard is delivered as an end to end mobile experience in which customers are on-boarded with digital KYC and provided with several loading options including a cash-agent model for the under-banked.

*OKLink (UK): OKLink is a platform provider that empowers companies worldwide to offer superior, fast, secure, and low cost value-transfers. It utilises the transparency and power of the blockchain to connect partners worldwide.

*Pyppl (UAE): It enables digital payments for the approaching 1 billion smartphone users in the Middle East and Africa. Pyypl uses blockchain, de-centralised web, and machine learning for new levels of security and compliance, while delivering a superb digital customer experience. The UAE-based Pyypl partners with banks and payment networks for building a world-leading FinTech ecosystem in the Middle East and Africa.

*Remitr (Canada): It offers cross-border payments services which chooses the most cost- and time-efficient rails to reach the payee. These rails include using blockchain networks such as Ethereum or Ripple, as well as traditional bank and SWIFT-based transfer mechanisms.

*Sifr India (Cipher): It optimises cash circulation via the Cash@Shop solution and eliminates the use of an ATM. The mobile application allows users to withdraw cash from all participating merchants via QR code, NFC and debit card swipe on POS terminals. Plans are already on to mobilise biometrics into the application to further eliminate the need for the mobile application or debit cards.

*Yes Money (Italy): An innovative means of payments: the YM! Card is a high-tech prepayment solution supported by “Kitt” a fully integrated and web-based platform. This unique combined service will allow a broad range of corporate clients in the UAE to fulfil the requirements of a reliable and cost effective payment system, of a digital program management and of a real-time transaction processing to support their business expansion locally and abroad.

Richard Teng, the chief executive of the FSRA, said: "The overwhelmingly positive response we’ve had from the global FinTech industry in the first year of the RegLab programme is extremely encouraging."

"We are already seeing some great results from the first cohort, and are looking forward to seeing results from the second, which include fascinating projects such as an Initial Coin Offerings and blockchain-enabled payments, settlements and RegTech solutions, among others," noted Teng.

According to him, the quality of the firms that applied from Europe, Asia and closer to home has been impressive, and speaks volume of the strength and attractiveness of ADGM as a jurisdiction for FinTechs to establish themselves and expand into the Middle East, Africa and Asia region.  

"In total, we have 16 FinTech firms in our RegLab programme and we will continue to expand this team to better serve the needs of the financial services industry and our economy," he added.-TradeArabia News Service