Designed to be one of Asia, Europe, and North Africa’s premier annual fintech events, 24 Fintech is hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), the Capital Market Authority (CMA), and the Insurance Authority (IA). Featuring 175 hours of expert-led content, the conference aims to rival some of the world’s best fintech gatherings. It is expected to attract over 26,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, and 200 investors.

Co-organised by Fintech Saudi and Tahaluf, 24 Fintech will unite regulators, policymakers, investors, technologists, and academics, and provide a platform for global industry stakeholders to shape, foster, and spur collaborative fintech transformation.

Commenting on the industry, H.E. Mohammed ElKuwaiz, Chairman, the Capital Market Authority said: “The Fintech sector is a crucial driver for enhancing and developing the efficiency of financial products and services, aligning with the current technological revolution and serving the Kingdom’s developmental and economic goals. The Saudi Capital Market Authority’s co-hosting of the ’24 Fintech’ summit will bring together key stakeholders to foster innovation and development, and create diverse financing and investment opportunities. Our involvement reaffirms our commitment to creating a vibrant, transparent, and resilient financial ecosystem that meets the highest international standards.”

24 Fintech brings the titans of the finance world to Saudi Arabia, with central bank governors featuring in the speaker line up alongside leaders from regulatory authorities across the Middle East, key global banking and finance players and fintech pioneers.

“Financial innovation and Fintech enablement is pivotal to the ongoing transformation of Saudi Arabia’s economy. The Saudi Central Bank’s (SAMA) participation in co-hosting the 24 Fintech conference underscores its commitment to adopting advanced and innovative solutions, bringing added value to the economy in a manner that encourages competitiveness in Saudi Arabia’s financial market while maintaining the stability and resilience of the financial sector as key enablers for the success of any economic transformation,” said H.E Ayman Al Sayari, Governor, Saudi Central Bank.

The event’s format has been designed to enhance the experience of investors, startup entrepreneurs and academia alike. 24 Fintech will run a Startup and Investors’ Zone known as the “Fintech Fusion Hub” to convene 80 of the most exciting and innovative startups and 200+ investors. Selected startups and investors will collaborate across a thought-provoking agenda on the Fintech Fusion stage, with AI-enabled matchmaking and access to expert-led mentorship.

Speaking on their participation, H.E Abdulaziz AlBoug, Chairman, Insurance Authority said: “The Insurance Authority is excited to back the inaugural edition of 24 Fintech, recognising the crucial role of digital transformation in the evolution of the insurance sector. This event will facilitate the integration of innovative technologies, enhancing the quality and reach of insurance services across the Kingdom. By promoting technological advancements and encouraging innovation, we aim to ensure sector stability, policyholder protection, and sustainable growth. The summit will be instrumental in driving the digitalisation of insurance, supporting our mission to lead in enabling technology and contributing to the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.”

The 24° Trends Stage will deep dive into the trends and technologies reshaping finance while the Futures Forum Stage will host academic discussions and talent development. Fintech Fusion will be where founders and investors can share experiences and explore opportunities.

“Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 makes clear its goals for fintech leadership. It envisages the establishment of at least 525 fintech companies, the creation of 18,000 fintech-related jobs, and a GDP contribution of SAR 13.3 billion by 2030. These objectives signify the country’s unwavering commitment to the growth of its fintech infrastructure, and 24 Fintech will be a pivotal platform that will contribute to this economic growth through strategic collaborations and a strong government-backed support system,” commented Annabelle Mander, Senior Vice President, Tahaluf.

The post 24 Fintech to redefine the global financial ecosystem appeared first on My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!.

Taking place September 3-5 at Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Centre, the landmark debut of 24 Fintech aims to solidify Saudi Arabia’s position as a global fintech leader. The event will be hosted by the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), Capital Market Authority (CMA), Insurance Authority (IA), and is co-organised by Fintech Saudi and Tahaluf, a joint venture between Informa PLC, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and the Events Investment Fund.

With less than six weeks until the debut event, several high-level speakers are confirmed to discuss trending themes influencing the industry. H.E Mohammed Al Jadaan, Chairman of Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), has been confirmed as a speaker at 24 Fintech.

Throughout the three-day summit, attendees will hear from high-ranking government officials, including H.E Mohammed ElKuwaiz, Chairman of the Capital Market Authority; H.E Abdulaziz AlBoug, Chairman of the Insurance Authority; H.E Eng. Naij Al-Faisal Al-Tamimi, CEO, Insurance Authority; H.E Yazeed Alnafjan, Deputy Governor of Financial Innovation at the Saudi Central Bank; Yazeed AlDemaigi, Deputy of Strategy, Research & International Affairs, Capital Market Authority; and Nezar AlHaidar,  CEO of Fintech Saudi.

Expected to attract over 26,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, and 200 investors, 24 Fintech will feature 175 hours of expert-led content, positioning itself as one of the world’s leading fintech conferences. Key topics include Governance, Risk and Policy, Cybersecurity, Global Interoperability, and Innovation in Payments.

24 Fintech will feature four stages hosting an array of keynotes, panel discussions, and industry announcements exploring investment opportunities, startups, technology, and academia.

The Futures Forum Stage will be a hub for academic and interactive discussions on blue-sky thinking, while the Fintech Fusion Stage will converge investment and innovation, providing a platform for founders and investors to share experiences. The 24° Trends Stage will explore the latest trends and technologies reshaping finance.

Elsewhere, Startup Zone is a dynamic space for networking, pitching sessions, competitions, and demo showcases that will run parallel to the Investor Program – a venue for unearthing opportunities and making connections with visionary entrepreneurs.

“Fintech Saudi is thrilled to co-organise 24 Fintech, a pivotal event aimed at cementing Saudi Arabia’s position at the forefront of global financial services discussions. 24 Fintech is an important milestone in advancing the Saudi fintech industry and is consistent with our vision to position the Kingdom as a leading global Fintech hub,” said Nezar Alhaidar, CEO, Fintech Saudi.

A major driving force in Saudi Arabia’s non-oil and digital-first economy, the fintech sector now accounts for nearly 20 per cent of all venture investments into the Kingdom, explained Annabelle Mander, Senior Vice President of Tahaluf.

“This growth is propelled by the country’s youthful, tech-savvy population and a very pro-innovation government. With nearly two-thirds of the population under the age of 30, the Kingdom is an ideal location for a week-long celebration of innovation designed to enhance access to financial services, generate sector-wide investment, and showcase the breakthrough products and services primed to upend the sector in the near future. We are confident this event will spotlight the future of finance and act as an incubator for fintech entrepreneurs to grow and thrive.”

24 Fintech is closely aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 which positions the industry as a crucial element in achieving economic transformation. The exhibition has attracted key finance players who are supporting the Vision goals.

The post 24 Fintech to host senior government officials and global finance leaders appeared first on My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!.

The new annual event, hosted by the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), Capital Market Authority (CMA), and Insurance Authority (IA) and co-organised by Fintech Saudi and Tahaluf, aims to create a world-class event that will elevate Riyadh’s global financial technology ambitions and demonstrate the Kingdom’s commitment to shaping the future of finance.

Scheduled to run at the capital’s Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Centre from September 3-5, 2024, 24 Fintech has been created to showcase a collective commitment towards unlocking business and networking opportunities, embracing change, and leading innovation. The three-day event will combine an exhibition and summit – featuring 175 hours of expert-led content – with a host of satellite events, including industry gatherings and brand activations, running throughout the week, from September 1-6.

With the goal of establishing the Kingdom as a tech-driven global financial powerhouse, and Riyadh as an international fintech capital, Tahaluf has set ambitious objectives for 24 Fintech. The event aims to become the most influential, and impactful fintech business event, platform, and community anywhere in Asia, Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

Bolstered by an international summit that will unite regulators, financial services professionals, policy makers, investors, technologists, and academics, 24 Fintech will provide a platform for global industry stakeholders to shape, foster, and spur a collaborative fintech transformation.

Initial Tahaluf estimations project the inaugural 24 Fintech will attract upwards of 26,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, 200 investors and 80 fintech startups. The show will host more than 200 expert speakers to address pressing finance industry issues as the show looks to navigate the immense technological changes impacting operations, from infrastructure provision to client servicing.

Targeted attendees include central bank governors, regulators, policy makers, financial and non-financial institutions, big tech providers, investors and venture capitalists, academics, researchers, as well as professional and industry associations.

“Our vision is to drive forward finance by bringing together essential stakeholders and propelling practical, worldwide transformation in alignment with the economic development agenda laid out in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030,” said Annabelle Mander, Senior Vice President of Tahaluf.

The inaugural edition of 24 Fintech will feature four stages hosting three days of programming including keynotes, panel discussions, and industry announcements, with dedicated areas for investment and startups, technology, and academia. Across the various stages, experts will probe a host of themes including governance, regulations, interoperability, investment and reimagining the financial services landscape.

In addition to the main and feature stages, the show will host special initiatives – including the Regulators’ Village, a dedicated zone connecting regulators and fintechs who aspire to set up in the Kingdom. The inaugural 24 Fintech will also offer a dedicated investor programme with an exclusive stage and lounge, as well as Venturescape, pre-show initiative that will bring together 200+ global investors and 100+ fintechs for a series of workshops, mentorship and pitch practice.

A specific startup zone will spotlight 80 of the top global fintech companies, across all major fintech verticals including, but not limited to, payments, lending, insurtech, regtech, capital markets, compliance and open banking. Aspiring startups can take advantage of tailored mentorship and matchmaking sessions as well as a 24 Fintech pitch competition. The top startups will battle it out in timed pitch heats, culminating in a grand finale with US$250,000+ in equity free awards.

The post Riyadh to host one of the world’s best fintech event in September 2024 appeared first on My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!.

More than 1,000 of the region’s best and brightest ethical hackers competed in Capture The Flag, organised by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming & Drones (SAFCSP). The jeopardy-style competition tested ethical hacking skills across a range of categories, including Web, PWN, Forensics, Reverse Engineering, and Cryptocurrency, among others.

After a gripping contest, Team DiceGang were crowned winners, securing the coveted title and a cash prize of US$80,000 (SAR300,000). In second place was The Duck, who won US$53,000 (SAR200,000), with team C4t But s4d in third place, securing US$27,000 ( SAR100,000).

The Cyberseed Startup competition, which was running in parallel across the three days, was broken down into three categories. The Innovative Ideator  was aimed at startups that are pre-revenue but have potential groundbreaking ideas ready to make their first jump into the market. The Established Excellence category is for experienced startups that are larger in scale, while the Saudi Superstar award is reserved for a startup that is helping build the profile of cybersecurity talent within the Kingdom.

The winners, who each secured a cheque for US$10,000 (SAR37,000), were FourCore who won ‘The Innovative Ideator’, ‘The Established Excellence’ award was scooped by AlShield, Powered by Bosch, while dPhish was home ‘The Saudi Superstar’ award.

“We are thrilled and grateful to be able to participate in the CyberSeed Pitch competition, and winning the Saudi Superstar award was beyond our expectations – it is an amazing feeling.  Black Hat MEA has provided our business with excellent opportunities, and winning this award will motivate us to continue our efforts, and with our financial projection plan, we aim to make dPhish more profitable and successful. We look forward to participating again next year!” Said Karem Ali Faisal, CEO of dPhish.

Event organisers Tahaluf, the Informa LLC joint venture with the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming & Drones, is helping foster the Kingdom’s next generation of cyber leaders with the staging of the inaugural Black Hat Campus,  a content-led environment bringing together vendors, universities, recruiters and consultancies. The Campus concluded on the final day of Black Hat MEA 2023 having created a unique platform for startups to engage with potential investors.

“We operate across Southeast Asia, Singapore, India and the MENA region, and were excited to be a part of Black Hat Campus, which has allowed us to network with other startups as well as larger businesses looking for both partners and investment opportunities. At ThreatCop, we’re architects of a secure future and can reduce cyber risks by up to 90 per cent across some of our products, which has attracted a lot of interest. We’ve interacted with some great like-minded experts and are positive to keep these conversations going after the event,” said Pavan Kushwaha, CEO of ThreatCop, one of the startups invited to participate in the campus

Shiv Kumar, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at AIShield, echoed that experience, adding the Campus had provided the perfect setting to help accelerate his business. He said: “Participating in Black Hat MEA Campus as an AI Security provider was a game-changer for us. We have a unique and targeted platform to showcase our products and engage with industry experts. The event was pivotal in accelerating our brand and customer conversations in the dynamic and highly adaptive cybersecurity landscape in the Middle East, and to win the Established Excellence award was the perfect end for us. We’re excited to see how participating this week will grow our business and network.”

“The launch of Black Hat Campus this year was a strategic move in line with our commitment to equip the next generation of cyber professionals with advanced skills to really make a difference and shape the industry’s future, and it has outperformed our expectations, particularly the  student-focused zone aimed at nurturing local talent. This initiative offers unique learning opportunities under expert cyber professionals,” said Annabelle Mander, Senior Vice President, Tahaluf.

The post Black Hat MEA crowns the winners of hacking and startup competitions appeared first on My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!.

The Saudi Federation of Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), which has masterminded some of the Kingdom’s most innovative high-tech bootcamps and events, and Informa Tech, organisers of the world’s most renowned cybersecurity networking event series Black Hat, are bringing their global experience and industry know how to life through @Hack – set to take place at the Riyadh Front Expo Centre from November 28-30, 2021 in a partnership with the national telecoms operator STC.

Thousands of attendees will benefit from in-depth, hands-on technical courses on topics ranging from broader offensive security to the latest techniques in penetration testing, infrastructure hacking, mobile application security, analysing automotive electrical systems and everything in between.

In order to deliver this, @Hack is the official Middle East facilitator and distributor for Offensive Security, a leading cybersecurity training partner for major organisations including the US Armed Forces, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM. Defining the standard of excellence in penetration testing, their elite security instructors will be among the 50 Black Hat approved trainers to run a powerful training series in the run-up to the event, taking place from November 23-27. A first for the Middle East region, the series will form a world-class hacking school delivering advanced tutorials for all levels of hackers over a series of 20 courses. Other supporting partners include NotSoSecure, Orange Cyberdefense and We45.

“We are working diligently to showcase our tech capabilities on the global stage and this collaboration with Informa Tech will deliver one of the world’s largest and most forward-thinking cybersecurity events, right here, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” commented SAFCSP Chairman, Faisal Al Khamisi.

“Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing markets in Saudi Arabia and @Hack will create a social movement unleashing our boundless potential and ambitions, helping to inspire a technological golden era.”

@Hack will also provide business opportunities in one of the world’s largest cyber business halls with over 250 cutting-edge brands, including 40 breakthrough start-ups, housed in its ‘Innovation City’. More than 250 of the globe’s leading infosec experts and hackers will present game-changing research, address new vulnerabilities, open-source tools and zero-day exploits.

“We’re excited to be a part of this amazing new launch @Hack – in association with the world famous Black Hat. Having seen the plans for this event, we are proud that Saudi Arabia will host a cyber security event of genuine international importance,” said Yasser Alswailem, VP of Cybersecurity for STC.

The three-day cybersecurity agenda-setting event will also feature an Executive Summit that will bring together Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) from the world’s most complex and critical organisations to address the Middle East’s cyber security needs including security guru and cyber security author Bruce Schneier.

The industry’s greatest minds will be in attendance, including the former US marine and ethical hacker Bryan Seeley, who is the only person to wiretap the US Security Service and FBI; Hector Monsegur, one of the masterminds behind the infamous Anonymous hacking group; Chris Tarbell, the FBI agent who caught Black Hat Hacker Monsegur, Jaya Baloo, Chief Information Security Officer of Avast and Vice Chair of the Quantum Flagship Billion Dollar Project, and Olivera Zatezalo, CSO, Huawei Canada, named Canada’s top 20 Women in cybersecurity.

Elsewhere, @Hack will put 17 industry sectors in the spotlight, including applied security; cryptography; data forensics; incident response; IoT; malware; network defence; platform security; mobility; policy; reverse engineering; webapp security as well as smart grid and industrial security. An @Hack Arsenal will see the latest open source hacking tools presented daily by 20 world-wide programming geniuses who will lay bare data security vulnerabilities in commonly used software and platforms via live hacking demonstrations of everyday workplace and home devices.

“Throughout my career, I’ve never had the pleasure to partner on an event with so much ambition and funding in place to ensure it will be a global leader in its first edition. The scale and plan for @Hack is enormous and shows just how serious Saudi Arabia is in becoming a global tech hub with an events sector that attracts business tourists from all over the world,” said Annabelle Mander, Portfolio Director, Informa Tech.

The premiere edition of @Hack is being organised with support from SAFCSP and strategic sponsor SPIRE Solutions, an industry-leading information and cyber security solutions provider in the MENA region.

“When you put Saudi Arabia and Black Hat together the result can only be phenomenal, the region has been waiting for a security event like this for years and we are delighted to be one of the first strategic partners,” said Sanjeev Walia, CEO for SPIRE Solutions.

The post Saudi Arabia to hold an hackers event in November appeared first on My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!.