Saudi Arabia made a fresh bid to position itself as the Middle East’s fintech hub, aiming to attract foreign firms and ultimately overtake the UAE in financial innovation.
At a packed exhibition hall on the edge of Riyadh this week, more than 1,000 investors and executives from mostly US and Chinese firms mingled with local startups.
Saudi firms were mostly driving the headlines — buy-now-pay-later firm Tamara secured a $2.4 billion credit line, payments firm services firm Hala closed a $157 million funding round — but the sense among attendees was that the kingdom’s notoriously conservative regulators were making it easier for foreign firms to do business in the region’s biggest economy. Crucially, they’re also opening licensing in areas like tokenization and digital assets.
“There’s no doubt that the UAE is very progressive when it comes to digital assets and beyond,” Mohamed Fairooz, Middle East lead for Standard Chartered’s venture unit SCVentures, said in an interview. “But the opportunity in Saudi Arabia is bigger than any other market.”
Saudi Arabia wants more than 500 fintechs licensed by 2030, up from fewer than 300 today. The sector is “still quite nascent,” but regulators have taken noticeable steps to promote it over the past six months, said Zeeshan Khwaja, financial services partner at consultancy Kearney.