MENA fintech has never been more confident & never been more constrained
This Viewpoint presents insights from the Voices of Fintech Tuesdays Survey 2025, capturing the perspectives of fintech stakeholders across MENA. Conducted by Fintech Tuesdays and Arthur D. Little, the survey reveals several pain points, yet an overarching sense of optimism. Geopolitical turmoil has since created new uncertainty, but the Middle East’s fintech ecosystem entered the current situation from a position of strength — a position that is likely to remain, albeit with short-term challenges ahead.
The Middle East is facing another phase of geopolitical uncertainty, yet two realities remain steadfast for MENA fintech: the sector is no longer new, and the region is no longer playing catch-up, with the UAE setting the pace. Fintech first movers have been operating in MENA for a decade or more and the steady stream of new entrants underscores what many in the field already know: with hubs such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi now hotbeds of investment and innovation, the region is rapidly emerging as a global fintech actor.
The current turmoil in the Middle East may impact the landscape in the short term, but the region’s institutional capacity and structural strength are designed to withstand shock. What’s more, the advancement of digital technology is a force that no crisis can stop.
Propelled by the digitization of commerce and daily life, the rise of emerging technology, customer appetite for round-the-clock convenience, and progressive regulation, financial technology has risen from a nascent industry to an established field. In 2025 alone, venture capital funding in MENA reached a record $3.8 billion,[1] pointing to widespread belief in the region’s fintech future.
Capturing this positive sentiment and the challenges of the day, Fintech Tuesdays, a non-profit grassroots community in the region, joined forces with Arthur D. Little to conduct a targeted survey of ~140 fintech ecosystem stakeholders (primarily founders and C-suite executives), with strong presence in leading markets such as the UAE and KSA. The findings offer a snapshot of the fintech ecosystem as it stands and a window into the future of a sector that continues to grab headlines and add economic value in a region in pursuit of diversified success.
Against this backdrop of optimism and advancement, MENA fintech is well-placed to weather the current geopolitical crisis. Regional turbulence may accentuate existing challenges, but the industry trajectory will remain intact.
Around the world, fintech funding remains cautious amid rising regulatory expectations, tariff uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions. The Middle East, however, bucks that trend with multiple standout deals.
In January 2026, the UAE’s AI-native Islamic bank, Mal, secured $230 million in investment, while Rain, a crypto-asset exchange operating out of the Emirates and Bahrain, announced $58 million in Series B funding in August 2025. Across borders in Saudi Arabia, 2025 saw embedded finance fintech, HALA, raise $157 million in Series B investment, and financial services and shopping app, Tabby, secure $160 million in Series E funding.
In 2025 alone, venture capital funding in MENA reached $3.8 billion. High-profile transactions included Mal ($230 million), Rain ($58 million), HALA ($157 million), and Tabby ($160 million). These four transactions alone account for more than $600 million of deployed capital. This concentration raises an important question: if a significant share of funding is captured by a small number of large deals, what does that imply for the broader base of MENA fintech companies outside this tier?
The survey data suggests a bifurcated funding environment: visible strength at the top, capital pressure across much of the ecosystem.
Buoyed by big deals, the Middle East’s fintech community is approaching the future with optimism. The survey findings indicate that overall sentiment toward the region’s fintech sector is positive, reflecting post-pandemic recovery, improving regulatory engagement in key markets, and growing institutional acceptance of fintech solutions.
Expressed through numbers, three-quarters of respondents rated their optimism at four or five out of five, and 77% shared the belief that the fintech industry is stronger now than it was 12 months ago.
Yet that optimism is tempered by a measure of realism. Confidence in specific mechanisms remains low: policymaker-industry dialogue averaged just 2.3 out of 5, and only one-third of respondents rated bank-fintech partnerships as "good" or better. There is significant operational friction too: 73% of survey participants reported that banks were not adapting fast enough, with 70%+ facing capital-raising difficulties in the past 12 months, and 78% citing lack of cross-border regulatory harmonization as a barrier.
Notably, the survey reveals consensus that regulation, collaboration, and infrastructure will be determining factors in fintech success and that the United Arab Emirates is leading the way. Around 60% of respondents identified the Emirates as the key market most likely to lead fintech innovation over the next three years, and nearly half rated the regulatory landscape positively.
On the opportunity landscape, trends across several major areas for fintech come into focus:
Alongside these opportunities, transformative innovations are shaping the world of fintech, with embedded finance ranking highest (34%), ahead of AI and machine learning (29%) and open banking (21%). Respondents view embedded finance as the natural evolution of fintech, integrating payments, lending, and insurance directly into non-financial platforms such as real estate, healthcare, education, and supply chains. Embedded finance and AI are also seen as mutually reinforcing; AI enhances risk assessment and personalization, while embedded models improve distribution and customer engagement.
In addition to embedded finance and AI, survey respondents largely concur that the digital assets ecosystem will mature into a cornerstone of the Middle East’s financial infrastructure by 2030.
Stablecoins are gaining traction as a bridge between traditional fiat and blockchain-native value transfer, and are expected to become mainstream payment rails within the next three years, especially for cross-border use cases. Meanwhile, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are advancing from pilot stages to strategic implementation, and tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is beginning to unlock new liquidity, fractional ownership, and efficiency gains.
However, there is a caveat. The survey findings reveal a personal-professional divide when it comes to digital assets. Around 56% of respondents say they currently hold crypto assets such as Bitcoin, or plan to do so. By contrast, only 25% report organizational integration, with regulatory uncertainty a significant barrier to uptake and implementation.
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