FEATURE
would incur if they were to come here
independently. During their 3-month
mentorship programme they can
test their solutions with partners in
the programme for regulations and
governance, local and regional market
response, and receive feedback. They
can identify potential sources for
their next round of finance, sources
of future partnership, or get sufficient
confidence to go-live on their own.
“You are getting all that stuff sitting
out of this place literally free of cost,”
he adds. “And then you decide, it is a
great market, it has got great demand
and I want to launch. That is what
you achieve.”
A key benefit for programme participants
is access to a regulator within the
financial institution. However, Aich
points out, “Most of fintech innovation
that is happening, probably 60% at
first does not have to be regulated.” It
is for this reason that DIFC follows a
bottoms-up approach, first seeing what
needs to be regulated and then creating
a regulation. “This will be the only place
literally in the world where the regulator
is not first jumping in and saying, we got
to regulate. We are building it around
the need of the market and we believe
that is the future.”
Dubai’s unique position as bridge
between north and south, east and
west, its older heritage as a trading
hub, and modern vision of being best
of breed smart city, justify its attempt
to be the regional centre of future
fintech activity.
“There is a huge thirst from institutions
in this part of the world to embrace
innovation to solve business problems.
That is necessary in order to meet
the needs of consumers, global trade,
commercial multinational customers,
who use Dubai as a hub given their
trading activities. That does continue
to enforce the fact that Dubai is a good
choice of location for establishing a
regional hub for fintech innovation,”
sums up Saluja.
Accelerator programme for fintech’s
FinTech Hive at DIFC is about mentoring and collaboration,
rather than purely sales. While new business may be one
positive outcome for participants, it should not be the
primary objective. To get the most from the experience,
participants should come with an open mind and a
willingness to learn and collaborate with financial institutions
from across the region and the globe. FinTech Hive at DIFC
has been developed to help refine and test a proposition with
the support of the world’s leading financial firms.
Application into the FinTech Hive accelerator
programme are open to all companies, regardless of
size, under various conditions:
• You are not already an established, public, listed or known
technology business in financial services
• You are not an established business in other industries
looking to branch out
• You are not a financial services professional who wants to
commercialise their intellectual property
• You have a minimum alpha or beta product to demonstrate
and are prepared to share access to programme partners
under non-disclosure
• Your senior team can commit to being based onsite
throughout the 12-week programme
• You can show access to senior-level executives in the
financial services firms will have an impact on your
growth prospects
• You are an early-stage business with an innovative idea
• You are an established company with fresh take on
financial services
• You are an IT entrepreneur with industry-changing
intellectual property
www.intelligentcio.com
The FinTech Hive accelerator programme.
Benefits for participants
• Fast track the concept
• Convert into commercially viable proposition
• Tested in the most demanding industries
• Mentoring from industry leading firms, senior financial
services executives
• Insider knowledge
• Direct feedback from target user groups
• Workshops and panel discussions on procurement, regulation,
industry trends
• Opportunities to raise profile amongst partners and investors
• Workspace for two employees throughout programme
FinTech Hive at DIFC differs from other accelerators across the
globe, as both FinTech and financial institutions are housed under
one roof. This self-contained environment is a nurturing ground
for creating an exceptional FinTech hub that meets the needs of
the financial services industry, stakeholders, customers alike.
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