The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) have announced the winners of the fourth annual Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge, one of the flagship initiatives of the Fintech Abu Dhabi event.
Following a five-month highly competitive selection process, seven firms including Uqudo (United Arab Emirates), Market IQ (Canada), Taiger (Singapore), modefinance (Italy), FutureFlow (UK), Elucidate (Germany) and Finverity (United Kingdom) were selected from a total of 189 applications. Their solutions demonstrate innovative ideas to address the pain points of the financial service sector and focus on initiatives to promote financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the digitalisation of financial services, and Regtech solutions.
The winning start-ups will be assigned to work with one of five Corporate Champions, including First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), Anglo Gulf Trade Bank (AGTB), Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), and the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), to develop a possible solution to address a particular problem statement through a Proof of Concept (PoC) process. In addition, these chosen start-ups will showcase their winning solutions during the Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge Demo Day on 25 November 2020.
The winning start-ups and Corporate Champions will be eligible to apply for grant funding to further develop and test their solutions in the ADGM Digital Lab under the supervisory guidance of CBUAE and the FSRA, with a view to accelerating the adoption and ensuring the regulatory compliance of their solutions, which will help to overcome pain points in the industry. Equipped with API connectivity, digital toolkits and synthetic data to create representations of a bank’s operating environment, the Digital Lab enables open collaboration by bringing financial institutions, Fintechs and regulators together in the experimentation and procurement of innovative solutions.
The Winning Start-ups
Market IQ: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has selected Market IQ as the winning solution for Problem Statement 1 and will be working with Market IQ to test an innovative credit analytics model for its SME banking business. Market IQ is a patented predictive analytics platform focused on providing actionable, real-time intelligence, culled from social and structured data, to help clients make better business decisions. Market IQ surfaces predictions and business outcomes by focusing on change in sentiment and uses a framework very similar to the framework used by medical scientists to diagnose diseases.
TAIGER : Anglo Gulf Trade Bank has selected TAIGER as the winning solution for Problem Statement 2 and will be working with it to enhance its digital on-boarding processes for SMEs. TAIGER specialises in advanced AI-engineered information access and extraction solutions, that exploit the meaning of structured and unstructured information with unparalleled accuracy for industry leaders in financial services and the government – significantly reducing costs, human risks, and increasing efficiency and trimming processes for organisations.
modefinance: As the winning solution for Problem Statement 3, modefinance will be working with Etihad Credit on a credit rating model that helps ECI in risk management and decision making by evaluating counterparties credit worthiness and the probability of default thereby enabling sound decision making and portfolio management Applying Data Science & Artificial Intelligence to Finance, modefinance develops solutions for Risk Assessment & Management, as the first official Fintech Rating Agency in Europe
Uqudo: Selected by First Abu Dhabi Bank as the winning solution for Problem Statement 4, Uqudo will be working on enhancing FAB’s digital onboarding journey. Uqudo offers next-generation AI-powered trusted Identity as a Service and enables the seamless incorporation of essential onboarding functions whilst aiming to eradicate identity fraud by providing the addition of a secure trusted identity layer. With a keen understanding of the need for change, Uqudo addresses evolving business requirements whilst adhering to country-specific rigorous KYC, AML and CDD specifications.
FutureFlow: One of the two winning solutions for Problem Statement 5, FutureFlow, maps out the movement of funds in the financial system and enables financial institutions and regulators to collaborate, while protecting customer confidentiality. FutureFlow’s software compiles the topology of the movement of money in the financial system that extends beyond each individual institution’s immediate field of visibility, with applications into electronic financial crime, economic policymaking and consumer research and insight.
Elucidate: The other winning solution for Problem Statement 5, Elucidate, is a financial crime risk management company enabling financial institutions to benchmark and price financial crime risk through the Elucidate FinCrime Index (EFI), an automated platform developed in partnership with leading global correspondent banks.
Finverity: Finverity was selected by the FSRA for Problem Statement 6. Finverity is a cross-border supply chain finance platform connects companies in need of working capital optimisation and institutional investors seeking access to this alternative asset class with limited correlation to markets and reliable yield.
As part of Fintech AD’s suite of activities and outreach initiatives, the Innovation Challenge brings together Fintech talent from across the world to address real challenges put forward by Corporate Champions. This year’s Innovation Challenge calls for the development of proof of concept (PoC) solutions to promote financing for SMEs, which are an instrumental stakeholder in the UAE’s plans for economic transformation and diversification.
