Lulu Exchange invests in tech start-up

MUSCAT: Lulu Exchange Holdings, the leading financial services company, has announced that it will invest $3.5 million in tech start-up ARKIN Technologies Limited. Through the collaboration, Lulu Exchange Holdings plans to offer a holistic suite of financial products and services, constituting a digital revolution in the financial services space.

Lulu Exchange Holdings plans to take ARKIN’s expertise to offer everything, from cloud banking to real-time remittances, bills payments, Prepaid MasterCard and VISA, tap payments, prepaid products, API banking, and even chat applications, to various markets in the region and worldwide. ARKIN’s platform is also armed with two-factor authentication and one of the highest encryptions in the world.

“We are excited to announce this partnership with ARKIN Technologies Limited. We do not want to be seen as just investors putting in the capital but as partners, with promising startups such as ARKIN sharing our expertise and leveraging on mutual strengths to offer customers simple and smart digital financial solutions,” Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director, Lulu Exchange Holdings, said.

ARKIN is headed by its CEO Ralph Santos, who is one of the pioneers in the FinTech industry, with experience in the field even before the word “FinTech” entered corporate vernacular. Through his vast experience in key positions across multiple industries, Santos has founded ground-breaking and innovative start-ups that have successfully redefined the digital landscape and provided a platform for greater financial inclusion.

He created the highly successful VMoney digital platform, offering extensive end-to-end financial solutions for businesses and consumers, including integratable online payments and fund disbursements for online and retail merchants, government institutions, medical organisations, educational facilities, and business enterprises.

“This is an exciting collaboration for us and we are proud to partner with Lulu Exchange Holdings. With its focus on investments offering mutual strategic value, wide reach, and unique solutions, Lulu Exchange Holdings is the right match for ARKIN and is a natural next step toward engaging and supporting the wider financial ecosystem,” Santos said.

“The digital revolution is rapidly transforming the financial services world and we want to be actively involved in developing new technologies and be at the centre stage of innovation. We were looking at being based out of the APAC region; but with Abu Dhabi fast emerging as the next FinTech hub, we decided to base our headquarters out of the Abu Dhabi Global Market,” Santos added.