With the FinTech sector’s recent boom in the UAE and across the wider region, Irish start-up DX Compliance has formally launched its operations in the Middle East from its new base in the UAE.
Operating out of the country’s capital, Abu Dhabi, DX introduces its disruptive technology and solutions to the rapidly expanding financial market.
The Dublin-headquartered company is fast becoming one to watch in the global RegTech space where its operations have expanded into five international markets. Working with banks and FinTech companies, they build AI-enabled anti-financial crime and compliance software solutions with easy to use features and top-of-the-line capabilities to effectively identify and manage regulatory and financial risks.
As a sign of the strategic importance of the UAE, DX Compliance has recently appointed financial compliance and FinTech expert, Razi Ardakani, as their Head of Growth. He will lead the company’s expansion across the Middle East and drive global expansion strategies.
The move to the region has been supported by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Government’s trade and innovation agency. Their involvement has contributed to the successful expansion of DX Compliance into the Middle East market. This includes the Dubai International Financial Center’s (DIFC) FinTech Hive as well as Abu Dhabi Global Market’s (ADGM) Hub71.
While the DIFC FinTech Hive specifically focuses on start-ups active in the FinTech space, Hub71 is a sector agnostic global tech ecosystem backed by Mubadala and supported by a number of other investment vehicles in the UAE.
DX Compliance has a successful track record in providing market-leading anti-financial crime products that offer insights into individuals’ and commercial entities’ financial behaviour. They generate value for their clients by uncovering suspicious transactions that usually go undetected by more traditional forms of anti-financial crime tools. Given the UAE government’s renewed commitment to the regulatory health of its financial services sector, this market is of utmost importance to DX Compliance’s expansion plans.
“With UAE topping the list of countries in the Middle East with the highest number of financial technology start-ups, we knew this would be the best market for us to begin our journey from. After successfully launching in the UAE and securing a place in the two biggest start-up accelerator hubs in the UAE, we are looking to expand our offer into the wider MENA region. This move will create several R&D jobs in Ireland where DX puts a high focus in hiring young talent. Following through our milestones achieved, we continue to help our customers benefit from the unique insights of our proprietary machine learning capabilities and user focused approach” said Simon Dix, CEO & Founder of DX Compliance.
Welcoming DX Compliance to the region, Stephen Twomey, Enterprise Ireland’s Senior Market Advisor for Fintech across MENA said, “The FinTech scene across the Middle East is ever evolving and fast emerging with plenty of opportunities for growth and innovation. We’re delighted to see DX Compliance successfully launch in the UAE and become part of the UAE’s largest start-up accelerators, making it the very first Enterprise Ireland backed FinTech start-up to secure a position at Hub 71 and DIFC’s FinTech Hive. Irish FinTech is well received in this region for its ground-breaking innovation, technology and ability to overcome challenges.”
Daniel Dorr, Co-Founder of DX Compliance said “The support we gain from Enterprise Ireland along with our collaborations with Universities in Abu Dhabi and Dublin opens doors for more growth and employment during unprecedented times. The collaboration between our two offices which represent two ecosystems, will help us expand our company and portfolio at a rapid level leading to more job opportunities and delivering value back into our respective ecosystems”.
“Our expansion into the UAE comes as we have just launched DX Version 2.0, our latest version of our transaction monitoring software, which takes the fight against financial crime to a whole new level. Our new and improved features enable banks, FinTech firms and other providers of financial services to effectively identify and manage their regulatory and financial risks, lower operational costs and focus their attention on their revenue drivers with a peace of mind”.
In addition to successfully launching in the UAE, DX Compliance has strengthened its leadership team by recently appointing Prem Ipe as Chief Product Officer. With over 15 years of experience leading data analytics teams, Prem was previously nominated as one of the top 30 leaders in Australia.
Considering DX Compliance’s expertise and journey of growth, the start-up was selected to be part of RegLab, the UAE’s specially tailored regulatory framework which provides a controlled environment for FinTech participants to develop and test innovative solutions.