Plug and Play ADGM Announces First Five Corporate Partners and Seven Startups to Join Fintech Innovation Platform in Abu Dhabi

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Sep 16, 2018, 10:45 ET

ABU DHABI, UAE, Sept. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Plug and Play, the largest global innovation platform, and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the leading international financial centre based in Abu Dhabi, today announced BNP Paribas, Boubyan Bank, Finablr Group (whose portfolio of network brands include among others “UAE Exchange”), First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), and Riyad Bank as the first five corporate partners to join the Plug and Play ADGM Fintech Innovation Platform based in Abu Dhabi. These new corporate partners will join Plug and Play's global ecosystem, with over 80 financial institutions across Silicon Valley, New York, Tokyo, Paris, and Frankfurt, while also leveraging the platform to support their larger innovation strategy.

The seven Fintech startups that have been selected to participate in Plug and Play ADGM's three-month accelerator will have the opportunity to work alongside the financial institutions for a possibility to execute POC or pilot projects. There is no cost for the startups to be in the program and they will remain part of the ecosystem post-graduation.

"Over the next year, we hope to facilitate engaging relationships between our new financial partners and startups in the program. Our goal is to help support our partners achieve their innovation goals on a global scale," said Omeed Mehrinfar, Managing Partner EMEA, Plug and Play.

Plug and Play ADGM has also partnered with K&L Gates to provide legal support for startups who plan to scale in the Middle Eastern region as well as Amazon Web Services to help startups build sophisticated applications to help scale and grow their businesses.

"Plug and Play is the world's most active technology venture capital fund and one of the most successful startup accelerators. We are excited with achievements made by the Plug and Play ADGM team in a mere four months and we look forward to supporting their growth aspirations. We are confident that the first five corporate partners will be able to further advance their innovation capabilities and competitive advantages by working closely with Plug and Play ADGM. As an IFC, we will continue to enhance our Fintech ecosystem and regulatory framework to support the growth of financial institutions, Fintech firms, and the startup community," said Richard Teng, CEO, Financial Services Regulatory Authority of ADGM.

The Plug and Play ADGM program will begin on September 16th, 2018 with the selected startups residing at ADGM's co-working space in Abu Dhabi.

The selected Fintech startups are as follows:

Bambu: Bambu is a B2B Robo-advisor firm offering financial and consumer brands the ability to integrate and benefit from the ongoing digital transformation in wealth management. We are looking to market our services worldwide, capitalizing on our traction to tap the growing robo-advisory market. http://www.bambu.life

Digiteam: Digiteam is an award-winning sales digitization and gamification solution that has helped top tier banks improve the productivity of sales people and relationship managers by acting as a mobile personal assistant, providing them with optimal actions while allowing managers to track and guide their teams in real-time. http://www.digiteam.com

Exate Technology: Exate Technology protects data in order to allow firms to safely use Cloud Technologies, as well as to comply with Cross-Border Data Transfers and Global Data Privacy Regulations. Data is a valuable asset and Exate's patent pending "passport control for data" solution allows clients to apply rules which easily and effectively control how data is accessed and reported. http://www.exatetech.com/

Market IQ: A cognitive intelligence analytics platform built specially for the financial sector, that is able to ingest structured and unstructured data from any source, dynamically run peer-relative and time-series analysis, and deliver insights in real time to drive better decision making. http://www.themarketiq.com

Trust Stamp: Trust Stamp authenticates identity and builds trust using proprietary artificial intelligence powered facial biometrics with proof of life technology. They are primarily focused on authenticating the identity of counter parties in Internet-mediated transactions, where digital identities can be augmented from multiple sources including public records & social media. www.truststamp.us

Viasema: Viasema's AI Platform Andromeda uncovers relevant information from virtually any source/format, and transforms it into contextualized, actionable business knowledge. This knowledge is combined with captured human expertise to automate complex internal processes in the legal, compliance and regulation fields. www.viasema.com/

Yogosha: Developer of a bug bounty platform designed to discover and resolve security bugs. The company's bug bounty platform provides pentesting, reporting and selling of security bugs and offers resources to correct the bugs, enabling IT industries to identify and correct their security vulnerabilities to prevent future incidents. www.yogosha.com

If you are a financial institution looking to work with an international scope of technologies, or a startup enabling the advancement of the financial sector, get in touch today.

Please contact Ashlene Ramadan or Ahmed Alireza to learn more: [email protected] / [email protected]

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 20 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 6,000 startups and 220 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club, and PayPal. For more information, visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com

About Abu Dhabi Global Market

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre (IFC) located in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, opened for business on 21 October 2015. Established by UAE Federal Decree as a broad-based financial centre, ADGM augments Abu Dhabi's position as a global centre for business and finance and serves as a strategic link between the growing economies of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and the rest of the world.

ADGM's strategy is anchored by Abu Dhabi's key strengths including private banking, wealth management, asset management and financial innovation. Comprising three independent authorities: ADGM Courts, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority and the Registration Authority, ADGM as IFC governs the Al Maryah Island which is a designated financial free zone. It enables registered financial institutions, companies and entities to operate, innovate and success within an international regulatory framework based on Common Law. Since its inception, ADGM has been awarded the "Financial Centre of the Year (MENA)" for two consecutive years for its initiatives and contributions to the financial and capital markets industry in the region.

SOURCE Plug and Play