What SettleMint achieved in the Middle East in 2018. What’s next?

2018 is coming to an end and it is time to look back at the most memorable events that happened this year. And what an intense and exciting year it was! While we focused on strengthening our product offer in Belgium, we also continued expanding our presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Beginning of 2018 we opened our office in Dubai and made a number of key wins across some major organizations. What a ride!

New wave of economic opportunities in the MENA region

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a large, diverse and rapidly transforming region. The World Bank estimates the economic growth in the MENA region will accelerate to 3.2% in 2019. GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) economies are anticipated to lead to stronger growth in the region, supported by easing fiscal adjustment, infrastructure investment such as the UAE Expo 2020, and reforms to promote non-oil sector activity.

While economic growth in the region is projected to recover, a wide array of business opportunities appears, attracting investment and giving a rise to innovation, entrepreneurship and SMEs. And when it comes to innovation and digital transformation, Blockchain is one of the key enablers of this. It can be illustrated by the Dubai Future Agenda, and Saudi Arabia’s 2030 digital pillars.

In 2016, the government of Dubai announced a new strategy that aims to convert all the municipal documents to a platform based on Blockchain technology by 2020. “Adopting Blockchain technology Dubai stands to unlock 5.5 billion dirham in savings annually in document processing alone — equal to the one Burj Khalifa’s worth of value every year” states on Smart Dubai, an initiative that was founded following the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Saudi Arabia is also moving from being a knowledge based economy to the executional phase adopting Blockchain within the context of Smart city initiatives and corporate innovation. Evidently seen through Neom and NCB within the content of banking and finance.

Another bright example is Bahrain. Bahrain is taking the lead in becoming a FinTech hub and a pioneer of Blockchain technologies in the region. According to the EDB’s Chief Executive, H.E. Mr. Al-Rumaihi, national adoption of Blockchain technology will be fundamental for Bahrain to move into the spotlight in this space.

One step further to expanding business

SettleMint got an early start in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) with our first trip to Saudi Arabia in March of 2017. In April, we attended our first event in Dubai and were selected by the Smart Dubai Office for the Global Blockchain challenge the following month.

“In both Saudi Arabia and Dubai, we found a great deal of interest in Blockchain technologies and our unique solution to make integration a snap. What missed at the time though was a fundamental understanding of what the technology is good for and equally important, what it is not good for. As a result, we took up the challenge of building knowledge early on and continue doing so today,” says Matthew Van Niekerk, Co-founder and CEO at SettleMint.

We worked closely with our partner in Saudi Arabia, Ateon, to first bring knowledge and know-how to the Kingdom and then to deliver several solutions, most notably in 2017 was our work with the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah.

This momentum continued to build through 2017 and the demand for our solution led to the opening of our office in Dubai in February of 2018 to provide close local support.

Key hires

Great things in business are done by a team of people. In 2018 we onboard two new hires: Ridah El Awad (VP, SettleMint MEA) and Deen Cadi (Head of Client Solutions MEA).

Ridah El Awad has over 15 years of experience in the global innovation and technology industry. Ridah’s prior experience includes strategy development, management and operations at Informa and IDC, in Dubai and London, where he served as a senior growth manager. Prior to joining SettleMint, Ridah was a head of partnership at Dubai World Trade Center recognized as being a regional leader in working with governments and the global tech startups ecosystem. In his role as VP, SettleMint ME, Ridah is responsible for the strategic development and management of Blockchain and business requirements for SettleMint MEA working closely with stakeholders from the MEA region.

Deen A. Cadi has over 15 years of broad financial sector experience in different roles which include risk management, audit, project finance and private equity at KPMG, ABN AMRO and the IDB. He has also served on the boards of the largest participation bank in Turkey and a DIFC-UAE licensed bank. As the Head of Client Solution MEA at Settlemint, Deen is in charge of client relationship, project management, and technical solutions.

2018 was a very intense and exciting year for SettleMint! We grew our network of partners and made a number of key wins across some major organizations.

“We are very excited to be part of the rapidly evolving ecosystem in the region and in September, also joined hands with Bahrain FinTech Bay to accelerate adoption of Blockchain technologies even further. We were very excited to record the first ever Blockchain certified contract in the region with FinTech Bay,” says Matthew Van Niekerk, Co-founder and CEO at SettleMint.

Want to know more? We are thrilled to share our latest news and key milestones from 2018.

Dubai Future Accelerators Program

In December, we returned from the Dubai Future Accelerators program where we worked alongside 40+ local and global technological advanced companies and startups. The 9-week program aimed to find innovative and smart solutions that employ modern advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, IoT, VR and AR for challenges faced by the 12 participating government entities. There we worked on implementing TokenMint for loyalty programs for Etisalat, the largest telecommunication corporation in the GCC.

Partnership with Bahrain FinTech Bay

We are very proud to partner with Bahrain FinTech Bay, the leading FinTech Hub in the Middle East and Africa, and join their Venture Acceleration Platform with Bahrain’s first Blockchain verifiable contract.

The contract was signed via SettleMint’s CertiMint platform that secures the authenticity and integrity of data by anchoring it on a multitude of Blockchain networks including the public Ethereum network where thousands of computers offer an incredible level of security.

GITEX and World Blockchain Summit

In October, we participated in the World Blockchain Summit and the 39th GITEX Technology Week, the biggest and boldest technology show in MENA and South Asia, connecting with top industry players in the Blockchain space. We also had the pleasure to run 2 interactive Blockchain Academy.global workshops.

“We were overwhelmed by the interest in the Blockchain technology and were excited to give 2 Blockchain Academy.global workshops at GITEX. We started Blockchain Academy.global with the aim to inform, educate and train everyone who wants to understand and learn about the Blockchain technology. Nailed it at GITEX!” says Roderik van der Veer, CTO at SettleMint.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million.

Partnership with E-MAL

Extending the network of partners in the MENA region is one of the main priorities for us. November marked another important milestone, our partnership with e-Mal.

e-MAL is a Financial ecosystem in Dubai with a strong commitment to introduce the ultimate Smart Economy to the government, employers, consumers, migrants, traders, and individuals from various ways of life. By implementing CertiMint, e-MAL eliminates the traditional paper based notarisation process between individuals and governments for services such as applying for Visas, insurances, identification card etc.

BlockOn 2018

In November we headed to Bahrain to join the BlockOn Conference 2018. The conference gathered over 300 global Blockchain innovators, investors, regulators and financial industry investors to explore the rising opportunities and challenges presented by Blockchain for financial services and other industries. Our CTO, Roderik van der Veer, and Solution Architect, Cassandre Vandeputte joined an impressive lineup of speakers to present about the Blockchain technology, its applications, the added value and the Blockchain’s ever-increasing business potential.

AIM Dubai

When it comes to invoice factoring the ability to reduce costs associated with management and audit is essential. Blockchain is disrupting the traditional financial landscape by cutting operational costs dramatically. We were delighted to join a round-table discussion at AIM Summit, the largest conference for alternative investments in the MENA region, to discuss how to democratise invoice factoring through Blockchain.

Arabian Chain Agreement

Last month, SettleMint signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Arabian Chain Technologies, a UAE based venture that is unlocking the potential of tomorrow’s economy by enabling today’s Blockchain innovation. The MOU is an important step towards partnering and working together on developing innovative Blockchain applications in UAE.

What’s next?

As we are moving forward it is important to make sure that we are creating more value to our clients. And this is our top priority.

“We are looking forward to continuing building knowledge and capabilities in the region and to working closely with organisations that aim to be the first to push the Blockchain agenda forward in their industry,” says Matthew Van Niekerk, Co-founder and CEO at SettleMint.

Beginning next year, we will open a new office in Saudi Arabia. This will be an important milestone in our growth strategy. Looking forward to sharing more news so watch the space, there’s more to come!

Got a question, a query or an idea how to optimise your business with our Blockchain-based business solutions? We’d love to hear from you.