UAE-based open innovation platform Fintech Galaxy has collected $2m in its seed round to support its goal of boosting financial inclusion in the Middle East and North Africa.
Ahli Fintech, a venture capital firm based in Jordan, served as the lead investor, with commitments also coming from by Raz Holding Group, OMQ Investments, Egypt’s EFG EV Fintech and INSEAD Saudi Angel Investors.
Fintech Galaxy is currently building an open finance platform that hopes to transform financial services through open API infrastructure that facilitates integration between FinTechs and institutions. Its platform supplies access to customer data from partner banks via its open banking APIs, while allowing developers to build new apps and service.
Speaking on the investment, Fintech Galaxy founder and CEO Mirna Sleiman said, “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 democratize financial services by building a stable and secure infrastructure and enabling smooth and standard integration between financial institutions and solutions providers.”
UAE-based Fintech Galaxy sees open finance as the next step for open banking. Financial data around mortgages, savings, pensions, insurance and consumer credit can be opened trusted and regulated third-party APIs.
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 enabling the whole ecosystem to access data and payment channels via a unified API gateway; and supporting financial institutions in their compliance with international and local Open Banking frameworks. This is a natural development of our Open Innovation platform and services.”
Last month, fellow UAE-based FinTech Hala secured $5m in a funding round. The investment, which was led by Mubadala Investment Company, will help the InsurTech expand its home insurance product lines.
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