MIZA signs an agreement with RAKBANK at Dubai Future Foundation

MIZA, a UAE based FinTech SME Finance platform provider, announced a strategic partnership with the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah (RAKBANK) at the Dubai Future Foundation on Wednesday 5^th of May. The signatories include the CEO of RAKBANK, Peter England, and the founder and CEO of MIZA, Mohamed Wefati. The partnership is designed to facilitate access to finance for a variety of different sectors in the UAE market.

With operating presence in several regional markets, MIZA developed an all-encompassing SME finance platform that offers a full B2B e-commerce digital eco system that connects SMEs with their suppliers. This further leverages the transactional data on its platform to enhance efficiency of credit decisions by partner banks. The Access to Finance platform formed by MIZA has been deployed in other markets in the region with focus on FMCG and eCommerce sectors.

The partnership is in line with RAKBANK’s strategy of creating an efficient ecosystem for SMEs that is designed to be the launchpad for providing innovative supply chain financing solutions to service key sectors of the UAE economy. The partnership will first target supply chain finance solutions to the pharma sector in the UAE, whereby pharmacies and medical providers in the country can easily obtain access to working capital credit against outstanding insurance claims.

“This strategic partnership aims to enrich our digital offering to customers and is in line with the Bank’s goal of constantly creating efficient solutions that contribute to the development of an environment where SMEs can thrive.” said Peter England, CEO of RAKBANK. “The Bank is also seeking to broaden the partnership with MIZA in the near future by extending our banking solutions to their customers, in addition to exploring other key sectors in the country such as F&B and e-commerce sectors.”

RAKBANK focuses on offering an evolving product base to support the unique requirements of SMEs and help them in achieving their ambitions. This included the launch of several diverse products such as RAKStarter and Quick Apply as well as the Bank’s unique platform SMEsouk. 

Managing Director of Business Banking at RAKBANK, Dhiraj Kunwar, said: “Our collaboration with MIZA will enable greater transparency into complex supply chains and provide further insights into the industry’s transaction patterns,” he noted. “We leverage these insights to provide quicker and more cost-efficient financing to suppliers in the early stages, as compared to the conventional supplier financing programmes. This strategic partnership will empower RAKBANK and give it a competitive positioning in the market, all while initiating its ability to enhance its SME lending portfolio in a post COVID era.”

Mohamed Wefati, the founder and CEO of MIZA, commented:  “RAKBANK is the largest SME Bank in the country and we are proud to have launched this strategic alliance with them as a bank that is so focused on SMEs and is a financial institution that is a leading digital adopter… Our operations across our target sectors in the UAE shall be enhanced through this partnership and through joining SMEsouk we will be keen to serve the ecosystem of SMEs across various sectors including Pharma, FMCG, F&B and others…”

As the post covid economic recovery framework is established across the region; digital tools for supporting access to finance of MSMEs are crucial to enable more efficient facilitation of capital and provide transparency and efficiency in support small merchants across the region.

“Through our work at DFF and AREA 2071, we seek to position Dubai as a leading city of the future, and an integrated hub for startups and talent from across the globe” said HE. Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of DFF. “FinTech is one of our focus sectors that is currently witnessing rapid growth, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We congratulate MIZA – a FinTech pioneer and one of the first MENA startup to join AREA 2071 – on the landmark collaboration with RAKBANK, which testifies to the success of our efforts to create an enabling environment for startups. Such partnerships are proof points to our core mission of connecting startups and entrepreneurs with the right stakeholders from the public and private sectors to create the impact and innovative solutions.”

MIZA was previously selected by the World Economic Forum as one of top 100 Arab startups and was a resident of Area 2071.

“Our Access 2 Finance solution is at the core of our regional growth strategy in the MEA region, through today partnerships we are announcing the continuation of our growth journey in the region from here at the Dubai Future Foundation in the incubator where it all started for us…. Through our regional strategy we are aiming to expand our services across several markets as we aim to intensify our impact with our banking partners to drive growth and provide much needed access to credit for MSMEs in the region especially in post COVID economic recovery era…”  said Mohamed Wefati , the founder and CEO of MIZA.

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About RAKBANK              

RAKBANK, also known as The National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah (P.S.C), is one of the UAE’s most dynamic financial institutions. Founded in 1976, it underwent a major transformation in 2001 as it rebranded into RAKBANK and shifted its focus from purely corporate to retail and small business banking. In addition to offering a wide range of Personal Banking services, the Bank increased its lending in the traditional SME, Commercial, and Corporate segment in recent years. The Bank also offers Islamic Banking solutions, via RAKislamic, throughout its 27 branches and its Telephone and Digital Banking channels. RAKBANK is a public joint stock company headquartered in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah and listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). For more information, please visit www.rakbank.ae  or contact the Call Centre on +9714 213 0000. Alternatively, you can connect with RAKBANK via twitter.com/rakbanklive and facebook.com/rakbank.

© Press Release 2021