Israel And UAE Collab In FinTech Is Speed Up By Strong Relation
Two years have passed since a U.S.-brokered agreement normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2020, resulting in the opening of embassies in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv and ushering in a new era of bilateral cooperation in trade, security, and financial services.
The Abraham Accords have created opportunities for cooperation between enterprises in two of the most creative economies in the Middle East that have the potential to improve their respective technology industries considerably.
This month, for instance, it was announced that two Israeli businesses would join the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s (ADIO) innovation programme, a $545 million initiative designed to encourage global technology companies to extend their intellectual property in the emirate.
In addition to being the first Israeli company to join the initiative, the FinTech-focused Liquidity Group will create a research and development facility in Abu Dhabi to develop machine learning-enabled (ML) LendTech solutions for its underwriting business.
The global specialist in credit automation, which also has offices in New York, Miami, London, Tel Aviv, and Singapore, will further contribute to Abu Dhabi’s broader FinTech ecosystem by constructing a new centre of excellence for enterprise machine learning to assist other startups in the city in applying its credit-decisioning technology.
Finally, Liquidity said it would collaborate with colleges in Abu Dhabi to produce ML-centric educational training programmes and certifications.
This month, the second Israeli company to join the ADIO innovation initiative was unveiled immediately after Abu Dhabi Finance Week. OurCrowd, a Jerusalem-based investment platform, has announced that it is extending its operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a new venture capital (VC) office and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation cluster in Abu Dhabi.
Our crowd’s staff in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) will expand to 60 over the next four years, and the firm will spend $60 million in the emirate.
Meanwhile, the business is forming a partnership with ADIO to develop a new AI-focused effort that will operate out of Hub71. Integrated Data Intelligence (IDI) is a new company that aims to help software firms in the financial district utilise and commercialise AI.
The most recent linkages between the startup ecosystems of Israel and the United Arab Emirates build on two years of intense engagement and co-investment between the two nations. For example, ADIO launched a Tel Aviv office in April 2017 and has since negotiated much international trade and investment agreements.
Not to be outdone by the ADGM’s attempts to build relations with Israel, the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) struck a deal with Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), Israel’s innovation enabler, in October of last year.
This agreement, reached last year, aims to develop FinTech-focused innovation bridges between Israeli entrepreneurs and the DIFC.
As part of the agreement, the parties agreed to assist Israeli and Emirati businesses who want to grow their operations in each other’s jurisdictions, including via regulatory sandboxes and accelerators that allow enterprises in one nation to access markets in the other.
Before this, in September, SNC and the ADGM signed a similar memorandum of understanding (MoU) intending to help grow their respective innovation ecosystems.
The signing of a second MOU between ADGM Academy and Avnon Group enabled the ADGM to use Israel’s world-leading cybersecurity expertise to establish a new School of Digital Assets.
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