Fintech Galaxy, the UAE-headquartered open innovation platform, has acquired $2 million in seed funding in order to further enhance the development and rollout of its Open Finance platform, as it looks to further expand its reach and support financial inclusion across the MENA region.
Fintech Galaxy’s investment round has reportedly been led by Jordan’s Ahli Fintech and it also received contributions from Raz Holding Group, OMQ Investments, Egypt’s EFG EV Fintech and INSEAD Saudi Angel Investors.
Fintech Galaxy is focused on creating an Open Finance platform, with a goal to update financial services with an open API infrastructure that offers integration between Fintech firms and institutions. The platform will offer access to customer data from partner banking institutions via its Open Banking APIs while enabling application developers to create new apps and solutions.
Mirna Sleiman, Founder & CEO of Fintech Galaxy, stated:
“Fintech Galaxy is driving the development of a much richer, broader financial technology ecosystem that goes well beyond banking to include insurance, asset management, exchanges, and pensions. We have designed the platform in collaboration with institutions and regulatory bodies from multiple jurisdictions across the region. Our main goal is to democratise financial services by building a stable and secure infrastructure and enabling smooth and standard integration between financial institutions and solutions providers.”
Open Finance is the next logical step in the Open Banking movements. Financial data like mortgages, savings, pensions, insurance and consumer credit – essentially a client’s financial footprint – may be opened up to trusted and regulated third-party APIs (after obtaining their permission).
Open Banking, which is widely being increasingly adopted in many nations across the globe, enables third-party developers to access client data from their banking service providers and serve as a bridge to financial tech platforms.
Regulatory authorities across the MENA region have been developing appropriate frameworks that could pave the way for greater Open Banking adoption and unifying technical standards like APIs, customer experience guidelines and cybersecurity standards.
The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) recently directed all retail banking institutions and financial institutions in the country to implement the requirements for the second phase of the Bahrain Open Banking Framework (Bahrain OBF).
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) is introducing an appropriate framework for Open Banking in the nation during H1 2022.
Sleiman added:
“For several years now, the financial sector of the Mena region has been abuzz with the concepts of ‘Open Banking’ and ‘Open Finance’. Our vision is to provide not only the technology infrastructure but rather enable the whole ecosystem to access data and payment channels via a unified API gateway and support financial institutions in their compliance with international and local Open Banking frameworks. This is a natural development of our Open Innovation platform and services.”
Fintech Galaxy reports that it has set up the foundations via its cross-border Cloud-enabled innovation platform intended to promote collaboration, drive innovation and establish integration between financial institutions and Fintech companies.
Many government agencies, banking institutions and Fintech firms are reportedly using Fintech Galaxy’s API Sandbox for various activities and proof of concepts (PoCs).