Foloosi is on the Top 20 Middle East Fintech

The past year has been eventful in the Middle East’s financial services sector. Last year, we saw the Saudi British Bank merge with Al Awwal Bank to create Saudi Arabia’s third largest lender. This came after Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank’s tie-up with Union National Bank and the subsequent takeover of Al Hilal bank as its Sharia-compliant arm in the U.A.E. The Islamic banking sector has also seen the merger of the region’s largest Islamic bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, with Noor Bank, a U.A.E.-based Sharia-compliant lender.

These mergers have reduced competition in an oversaturated banking market and in the long run will improve the profitability of the banking system. Dubai-based investment bank, Shuaa Capital, has also agreed to merge with its largest shareholder, Abu Dhabi Financial Group, to create a $12 billion asset under management firm.

And the region’s payment’s sector saw two large IPOs: one from Finablr, which owns the U.A.E Exchange brand, and one by payments solution giant, Network International. Both are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

This year we have collated two lists to mark this changing landscape: the Fintech 20 which is a collection of the most promising financial technology startups in the region.

Only fintech startups that were founded during or after 2012 were included, and we ranked them according to:

·         Funds raised from external investors

·         Scalability of the business

Name	Description	Founder	Funding	Country
PayTabs	Online Payment Processing Solutions	Abdulaziz Al Jouf	$26 M	Saudi Arabia
Bayzat	Online Health Insurance And HR Solutions Provider	Talal Bayaa And Brian Habibi	$25 M	UAE
Aqeed	Insurance Solutions Platform	Hadi Radwan	$18 M	UAE
Beehive	SME Focused Peer2peer Lending Platform	Craig Moore	$15.5 M	UAE
Souqalmal.Com	Financial Products Comparison Site	Ambareen Musa	$15 M	UAE
Eureeca	Crowdfunding Platform	Sam Quawasmi And Chris Thomas	$12.3 M	UAE
Liwwa	Peer-To-Peer Lending Platform	Ahmed Moor And Samer Atiani	$8.55 M	Jordan
Expensya	Cloud Based Multi-Platform Expense Management Software	Ahmed Moor And Samer Atiani	$5.7 M	Tunisia/ France
NymCard	Payment Solutions	Omar Onsi And Ayman Chalhoub	$4 M	Lebanon
POSRocket	IPad-Based Point-Of-Sale Solutions	Zeid Husban	$2.36 M	Jordan
Sarwa	Robo Wealth Advisor	Mark Chahwan- Jad Sayegh And Nadine Mezher	$1.5 M	UAE
Risk+ Solutions	Financial Intelligence And Risk Management Solutions	Jad G. Doumith And Chadi El Nawar	$1.45 M	Lebanon
Zbooni	Connected Chat Commerce App	Ramy Assaf- Mohamed Hamedi- Ashraf Atia	$1.4 M	UAE
Democrance	Insurance Marketplace For The Underserved	Michele Grosso Alberto Perez And Damian Dimmich	$1.3 M	UAE
Vapulus	E-Payment Gateway	Abdelrahman El Shaarawy- Islam Mousa- Khalid Gabr	$1.065 M	Egypt
Monami Tech	Financial Services	Ammar Afif	$1 M	UAE
Moneyfellows	Crowd Funding From Social Networks	Ahmed Wadi	$980 K	Egypt
PointCheckout	Payment Gateway For Loyalty Points	Bashar Saleh And Tarek Ghobar	$600 K	UAE
Foloosi	Payment Solutions Platform	Omar Bin Brek- Mohan Karuppiah	$500 K	UAE
Paymob	Digital Financial Enabler	Islam Shawky- Alain El-Hajj- Mostafa Menessy	Confidential	Egypt

Source: https://www.forbesmiddleeast.com/list/middle-east-fintech-20