Tarabut Gateway

Fintech Insights

The MENA region’s first home grown regulated open banking platform - Tarabut Gateway

In our fourth episode of Fintech Insights, Tushar Chaturvedi, Director in PwC’s Financial Services Consulting business, speaks with Adnan Erriade, Chief Commercial Officer of Tarabut Gateway (TG) about the development of MENA’s infrastructure for data and payments and more. 

Tarabut Gateway is MENA’s first and largest regulated Open Banking platform that connects a regional network of banks and FinTechs via a universal applications programming interface (API).

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Summary

The Fintech Insights are part of our Ventures Perspectives series where we speak to entrepreneurs and senior leadership from the flourishing Middle East tech ecosystem as well as industry experts about startup valuations, growth strategy and global expansion plans.

This episode’s guest Adnan Erriade, Chief Commercial Officer of Tarabut Gateway, joined the firm in 2022. Before joining Tarabut Gateway, Adnan was the Chief Revenue Officer of Decibel, a European tech startup & marketing technology company which saw a successful exit in 2021 to Medallia for US$160 million. He then went on to become the Chief Revenue Officer at Zivver, the Netherlands- based cybersecurity provider, establishing entry points into the US and other new markets. 

Adnan Erriade describes Tarabut Gateway’s offering as the next generation platform for connectivity to banks, fintechs, and merchants, thereby enabling them to provide their next generation of solutions to the market. 

The Tarabut Gateway journey started in 2017, when the founder Abdullah AlMoayed noticed the gap in the market compared to when he looked at the maturity of banking within the UK, where he had started his career. He returned to Bahrain and the Middle East to pitch his idea and the Central Bank of Bahrain came on board to explore innovation and regulation to work towards adopting a standard that was already maturing within regions like Europe and the US. Since then TG has expanded to the UAE, and continues to work with banks and regulators within the region to push the agenda for adoption and looking to expand in Saudi Arabia next. 

Tushar and Adnan also discussed the role that go to market alliances play as a driver in commercial success. Adnan spoke about what he called the ‘foundational layer’ of establishing product market fit which then allows a founder or team to go from wearing multiple hats, such as sales, marketing, and more to bringing in specialist support teams that can bring with them the experience that they have, from their previous careers to the table to allow that scope for growth. The ecosystem and the partner landscape are then key; you can leverage their capacity to scale so it is a win-win situation.

They then touched on the continuum from open banking to open finance, and then to open data where people can freely exchange information across different platforms.  Adnan explained that it is very much on TG’s roadmap. Beyond enriching data where the consumer now has a meaningful experience in terms of their statements and their banking history, the next stage would be providing that data back to the bank or a fintech. 

Tushar queried how TG has essentially become the core of the open banking system within Bahrain. Adnan explained that in Bahrain, they have signed up banks within the region which mean they have now captured 95% of the connected accounts running through TG’s platform regionally. 

When it came to successful partnerships Adnan's advice was: “If there is a path of least resistance that enables your ecosystem quicker, take it.” TGs approach to this has been through providing industry standard API's off the shelf, ready to drop into applications which allows other fintechs and banks to concentrate on their UX, and overall end to end flow. 

Both Tushar and Adnan acknowledged there are still challenges in the market when it comes to open banking. Regulation being key but Adnan also explained there is a degree of education needed in the market, such as moving away from looking at open banking as just a "tick in the box" from a compliance perspective to starting to look at the value add beyond is part of the education process. Adnan highlighted the case for what they call ‘thin file clients’  those that may have come from other countries, working within the region and with no credit history or banking history, but they have as much potential for the bank's customer base as anyone else. That's where TG comes into play.

They wrapped up the interesting conversation discussing talent and culture. Tushar highlighted a recent PwC Hopes & Fears workforce survey where  46% of the respondents in the UAE felt there's a real shortage of the digital skills required in the region with open banking being a niche product, meaning even further shortage. Despite that, TG has hired some significant names from the industry, including Nino Ocampo former Global Head of HSBC open banking & Mitul Sudra, formerly OpenWrks. Adnan attributed this ability to attract talent as TG’s first mover advantage.

PwC wants to discover the next generation of world-class tech scaleups tackling the most complex business challenges being faced by our clients today. If you are a fast growing startup addressing the financial services sector in the region, reach out to us. 

#PwCVenturesME

Contact us

Tushar Chaturvedi

Director - Financial Services Digital & Technology Services, PwC Middle East

Tel: +971 56 385 4337

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