Saudi Arabia Strengthens Position as Regional Fintech Hub with 68 Experimental Permits and 50 Fintech Companies in the CMA Fintech Lab

24.9.2025 18:17:00 CEST | Business Wire | Press Release

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Saudi Arabia has continued to strengthen the regulatory foundations for fintech growth, announcing that a total of 68 fintech experimental permits have been granted by the end of Q2 2025, with 50 fintech companies currently registered under the CMA’s Fintech Lab, 36 of which are actively operational.

This progress reflects the Kingdom’s evolution to a fintech environment that is ready and attractive for innovation, investment, and growth, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 and the CMA Strategy 2024–2026.

The CMA’s Fintech Lab was launched as a controlled environment for testing innovative financial products and services. The Lab enables both domestic and international fintech firms to pilot solutions under clear regulatory supervision, with a particular focus on securities crowdfunding, robo-advisory, digital trading platforms, and emerging technologies such as social trading and AI-driven advisory services.

Out of the 68 fintech companies admitted into the Lab, 36 have commenced operations, 14 are completing requirements to launch, five have graduated from the Lab, and others have concluded their permit period.

Abdullah Binghannam, Deputy for Finance and Investment, CMA, commented: "The environment we are creating supports a safe path from experimentation to market entry, empowering entrepreneurs with access to regulatory guidance, technical support, and a clear framework for responsible innovation. As we highlighted at Money20/20 Middle East, this clarity is essential for scaling fintech safely and attracting global innovators to the Saudi market."

The fintech ecosystem overseen by the CMA has significantly contributed to diversifying financial products and establishing new channels for economic financing. This includes platforms for distributing investment and real estate funds, systems for issuing and investing in debt instruments, automated advisory services such as robo-advisors, social trading models, and crowdfunding platforms. Efforts have also encouraged the establishment of venture capital funds within the fintech sector, ensuring compliance with the CMA's regulatory standards.

CMA’s evolving fintech framework aims to attract regional and global innovators to the Saudi market. Through sandbox mechanisms, fintech companies receive a structured, time-bound space to validate their business models while gaining feedback and supervision. With a mature ecosystem, Saudi Arabia is not only open to fintech innovation but is also building the infrastructure to lead it.

Source: AETOSWire

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250924009459/en/

Contacts

Yasa Ahmad
Yasa.Ahmad@edelmansmithfield.com

Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global leader in multiplatform press release distribution.

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

Hightouch Names Matthew Lubeck General Manager, EMEA7.10.2026 15:40:00 CEST | Press Release

Hightouch, the leader in data and AI for marketing, has named Matthew Lubeck General Manager, EMEA. Based in London, Lubeck will lead all of Hightouch's go-to-market functions across EMEA as the company helps brands in the region move to agentic marketing. Hightouch already has a strong foundation in Europe, with offices in London and Paris, and native-speaking teams in France, the German-speaking markets, Italy, the Nordics, Benelux, and the Middle East. It supports EU data residency and runs inside each customer's own data warehouse, so customer data never has to be copied into another platform. Brands across the region use Hightouch, including Accor, HelloFresh, Currys, Telenor, Salomon, Bolt, Nando's, and Depop. The company is also growing its Middle East presence, with a new team in Dubai focused on the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Lubeck's appointment follows more than 100 percent growth for Hightouch in each of the past two years, and its $150 million Series D earlier this year. Lubeck

Lenovo Announces Tech World @ CES 2027: Defining the Next Era of Hybrid AI7.10.2026 15:01:00 CEST | Press Release

Lenovo, the global technology powerhouse, today announced that its annual global innovation event will return to CES® 2027 in Las Vegas. Hosted at Sphere and part of the CES Keynote lineup, Tech World will bring together a visionary lineup of speakers and breakthrough innovations with a first-of-its-kind immersive technology and music experience. As well as unveiling the latest in Lenovo’s innovations, Tech World will unite global technology leaders and leading voices on stage to discuss the future of AI. Together, they will explore how hybrid AI can empower people and unlock new possibilities for business and society. As demand grows for responsible AI leadership, the event will provide a defining moment at the start of 2027 to consider AI’s role in unlocking human potential, sustaining the planet, and driving global progress. “AI is entering a new phase, where every individual and every enterprise should be empowered to transform data into real value,” said Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo Chai

Rivercell Launches With $25 Million to Build Data Platforms and AI Models That Predict How Human Cells Respond to Treatment7.10.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press Release

Rivercell, a Paris-based biotechnology and AI company building its own data infrastructure on how human cells respond to any treatment and training a world model of the cell that can predict those responses, today announced a $25 million seed round led by HV. HCVC, Alven and Bpifrance Digital Venture also participated in the round, which will fund the scale-up of Rivercell’s proprietary data generation platform, the expansion of its wet lab in Paris (a lab working with chemicals and biological samples), and the launch of its AI Virtual Cell program. Being indication-agnostic, Rivercell's world model can drive groundbreaking discovery across any cell behavior that leads to disease because it learns the underlying rules of how human cells respond to drugs and genetic changes, not the features of a single disease. Rivercell was started in summer 2025 by CEO Yann Fleureau, the engineer-turned-entrepreneur behind AI company Cardiologs, joined in 2026 by CSO Eric Durand, an AI scientist and

NTT DATA Opens AI Factory Munich Where Clients Can Validate their AI in a Live Environment7.10.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press Release

NTT DATA, a global leader in AI, digital business and technology services, today opened the NTT DATA AI Factory Munich, a real-world environment where clients can test how their AI applications will perform at scale before they invest in broad deployments. Unlike a traditional AI demonstration or innovation lab, the AI Factory Munich operates within a live data center environment (NTT Global Data Centers' Munich 2 Data Center), allowing clients to evaluate AI workloads against the infrastructure, security, data, governance and operational requirements they will face in production. AI deployments typically stall between pilots that prove an idea and enterprise-scale production that delivers value. To bridge this gap, the AI Factory Munich leverages NTT DATA’s capabilities from consulting, infrastructure and AI platforms to managed services, data centers and its global partner ecosystem. Among active partners, NVIDIA provides an accelerated computing platform, including NVIDIA Blackwell

Print Infrastructure Is the Biggest Zero Trust Gap CIOs Haven’t Closed, Survey Finds7.10.2026 14:30:00 CEST | Press Release

Vasion today released new research revealing a security gap hiding in plain sight across enterprise IT: CIOs and IT leaders know their print environments carry risk, but print remains largely outside their Zero Trust strategies even as failures continue to disrupt business operations. According to an independent survey of 500+ enterprise CIOs and senior IT leaders commissioned by Vasion through Censuswide, 54% of respondents describe their print environment as “actively managed, with known and accepted risks.” At the same time, 61% report that print or document workflow failures disrupt their business at least once a week. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261007677295/en/ Print Infrastructure Is the Biggest Zero Trust Gap CIOs Haven’t Closed, Survey Finds The finding points to a broader issue: print may not be viewed as broken, but it remains an accepted area of exposure and operational friction. The gap become

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom