SC Ventures and Emirates NBD announce MoU to explore strategic innovation in MENA

1 Min | 13 May 2025

The strategic partnership seeks to create innovation initiatives within the region in financial services
Memorandum of Understanding was signed at Dubai FinTech Summit by SC Ventures and Emirates NBD

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 13 May 2025: SC Ventures, the innovation, FinTech investment, and venture-building arm of Standard Chartered, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye (MENAT) region, to explore strategic opportunities for collaboration.

The collaboration outlines the intent of both parties to jointly explore innovation-led initiatives, support ventures in the Middle East and North Africa region, explore investment opportunities, tapping into their respective portfolios, capabilities and market insights. The partnership will focus on identifying synergies across digital innovation, strategic partnerships and venture co-creation in financial services.

“SC Ventures was founded on the vision of rewiring the DNA of banking and building an ecosystem to support this goal. The MoU with Emirates NBD brings together two forward-looking institutions with a shared ambition to accelerate innovation and unlock new value in the MENA region,” said Gautam Jain, Operating Member, SC Ventures.

Neeraj Makin, Group Head of Strategy, Analytics, and Venture Capital at Emirates NBD, said: “Innovation is a cornerstone of everything we do at Emirates NBD. This partnership with SC Ventures directly meets our goal of driving innovation in banking and strengthening our commitment to transform the landscape by creating new opportunities for growth in financial services in the region. This will lead to smarter, intuitive and secure banking experiences for our customers.”

The initiative announced at Dubai FinTech Summit also reflects the UAE’s growing role as a global hub for financial innovation and its commitment to fostering collaboration within the sector to shape the future of banking and financial services in the region. By bringing together two institutions with a strong track record of innovation and market leadership, the MoU aims to catalyse meaningful progress in digital transformation and regional FinTech development.

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