A Growing Fintech Industry is Emerging in Saudi Arabia

With fintech continuing to accelerate across the globe, Fintech Saudi has said it is seeing the emergence of a growing fintech industry in Saudi Arabia.

The Fintech Saudi Annual Report 2019/20, which provides an overview of the development of the fintech industry in Saudi Arabia over the past year, highlights a number of key developments that have taken place to support the growth of the fintech industry. 

Director of Fintech Saudi, Nejoud Almulaik said 2019/20 had been a pivotal period for the fintech industry in the Kingdom, “Despite the challenges of COVID-19 we have seen progression in regulations, infrastructure and an increasing number of investment rounds in fintech companies, which have built a solid foundation to support the emergence of a growing fintech industry in Saudi Arabia, that will contribute in a meaningful way to Vision 2030.”

Over the last year there have been a number of key developments in fintech in Saudi Arabia with the launch of Apple Pay, the establishment of Saudi Payments and the continued issuance of regulatory testing licenses and regulations by SAMA and CMA to support fintech activities. Within the community there have also been a number of major initiatives including the NCB / Monsha’at fintech accelerator program and the launch of Riyad Bank’s fintech fund.

Fintech Saudi has also continued to support the development of the fintech industry through initiatives including the Fintech Ecosystem Directory and the Fintech Jobs Portal to support fintech companies, the Fintech Regulatory Assessment Tool to provide greater regulation clarity and the Fintech Data & Research Initiative to support data driven innovation in fintech.

The collective impact of these developments is contributing to the growth of an emerging fintech industry. The number of operating FINTECHS has increased 3-fold in a year, from 20 in 2019 to 60 this year, with over 100 fintech startups at the idea or pre-commercial stage. There have also been an increase in fundraising deals completed in Saudi FINTECHS for the year to date with the total investment amount already surpassing 2019 levels. This is building up to a fintech market in Saudi Arabia that, according to Statista, is expected to reach transaction values of over USD 33 billion by 2023.

The Fintech Saudi Annual Report consists of a number of sections including an overview of the fintech industry by KPMG, the view from FINTECHS from MAGNiTT and interviews with the SAMA Regulatory Sandbox and the CMA FinTech Lab.