Dubai to host FinTech conference next year as it drives the future of finance

The two-day Dubai FinTech Summit will take place in May

FinTech remained the highest funded sector across emerging venture markets — which includes the Middle East — in the first half of 2022. Anna Nielsen for the National

Dubai will host a FinTech summit next year, as the emirate continues efforts to consolidate its position as a global hub for financial technology.

The Dubai FinTech Summit, which will be organised by the Dubai International Financial Centre, will take place on May 8 and 9, Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and president of the DIFC, tweeted on Sunday.

The forum will bring together more than 5,000 global experts, thought leaders, policymakers and decision-makers “to discuss the future of the FinTech sector”, Sheikh Maktoum said.

“The summit will continue to cement Dubai's leading role in shaping the future of finance,” he said.

FinTech remained the highest funded sector across emerging venture markets — which includes the Middle East — in the first half of 2022, more than tripling to almost $1.68 billion in the first half of this from a year ago, start-up data platform Magnitt said in a recent study.

The global FinTech market is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 11.9 per cent between 2022 and 2027 to reach more than $266.9bn billion by 2027, according to a report by Expert Market Research.

DIFC, which is home to the region’s largest cluster of FinTech and innovation businesses, is one of the biggest drivers of the sector.

Funding activity for the sector nearly doubled in 2021, with those in the Middle East and North Africa region alone raising almost $1bn, which is a 78 per cent increase from 2020, FinTech Hive, the start-up accelerator backed by the DIFC, said in its annual report.

“DIFC’s ability to create value for companies in the sector by providing them a highly productive ecosystem to accelerate growth has led to leading innovators and entrepreneurs in the sector gravitating to the emirate, Sheikh Maktoum said in a statement issued by the Dubai Media Office.

“The Dubai FinTech Summit will help open new horizons of opportunity and transformation for both the global FinTech sector and the worldwide financial industry.”

The summit is expected to generate tangible outcomes, including reports, strategies and action plans that can help chart the way forward for the financial services industry, the statement said.

Its agenda will feature in-depth discussions across key tracks including the future of FinTech, embedded and Open Finance, sustainability, Web3 and digital assets.

The forum will also provide an opportunity for more than 100 FinTechs and Future of Finance players to display their latest technology and innovations, the media office said.

“DIFC will leverage the platform offered by the summit to bring together banks, FinTechs and regulators from across the world to further stimulate the digital advancement of the financial sector,” Essa Kazim, governor of DIFC, said.

“We already have over 600 FinTech and innovation firms in DIFC who are changing the face of the industry and contributing to the economic growth of our country.”

The summit next year will build on the DIFC FinTech Week which was held in June this year, with the participation of more than 1,500 FinTech innovators, investment firms, banks, policymakers and service providers in the region.

Investments in the FinTech sector will continue to remain on venture capital and investment funds’ radars, despite slowing economic growth and mounting worries about a global recession, the two-day event, aimed at key FinTech players, highlighted at the time.