Three international fintech startups have announced their plans to expand to the Middle East in the near future. Fintech companies from Asia, North America and Europe show an interest in the Middle East fintech scene after raising funds to enable global expansion.

Singapore-based Kristal.AI announced that it would be expanding to the Middle East after raising $6 million in a Series A funding round. Asheesh Chanda and Vineeth Narasimhan founded Kristal.AI in 2016 and have since raised a total of $11 million. Kristal.AI currently handles over $100 million in AUM, with over 10,000 users on its platform.

Baton Systems, a provider of block-chain inspired bank to bank payment solutions, is also looking to expand in the Middle East. The American company was founded in 2015. It announced that it will expand to the Middle East, Africa and Europe using the $4 million investment it raised from Illuminate, a venture capital firm in January 2020.

SettleMint is another Fintech company eyeing the Middle East. The Belgian company raised $2.1 million in January 2020. It will use the funding to expand internationally namely to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and APAC countries. The company offers a Blockchain Platform called Mint, which acts as middleware for blockchain application deployment. It aims to enable companies to integrate any blockchain into their existing applications and back-end systems.  SettleMint has raised a total of $6.1 million since it was founded in 2016.

A report by MAGNiTT reveals that fintech was one of the most attractive industries for investment in 2019. FinTech companies attracted 13% of total deals in the MENA region last year.