Alibaba Cloud, LuluFin, Ant Digital Forge AI FinTech Alliance in UAE

By Puja Sharma

New collaborations pledge to accelerate financial innovation and resilience through advanced cloud solutions and Gen-AI technologies

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, announced its strategic partnerships with LuLu Financial Holdings(“LuluFin”), a UAE-based financial services company and Ant Digital Technologies during the Dubai Fintech Summit 2025. These collaborations underscore Alibaba Cloud’s ongoing commitment to supporting the region’s digital transformation by equipping businesses with effective tools and robust infrastructure to thrive in an AI-powered world.

These alliances come amid a wave of AI-led disruption and digital reinvention in the UAE and the wider GCC, where national innovation strategies, ecosystem investments, and future-focused talent development are redefining financial institutions.

At the Summit, Alibaba Cloud announced plans to deepen ties with Ant Digital Technologies, bringing joint solutions like ZOLOZ, mPaaS, and AI tools to its Dubai region. The move aims to empower local financial institutions with secure, scalable, and intelligent cloud-native and AI-driven digital transformation services.

Eric Wan, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud International, General Manager of the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said: “We’ve always believed that technology has the power to drive real-world change, and our collaboration with leading financial institutions like LuLu Financial Holdings and Ant Digital Technologies reinforces this belief. It allows us to support them not just adapt but thrive in an increasingly digital world. With our dynamic cloud solutions and AI capabilities, we’re supporting their journey to deliver smarter, more secure financial services – unlocking countless opportunities and reimagining the future of the financial sector.”

Alibaba Cloud’s robust cloud infrastructure and Generative AI capabilities are key to LuLuFin’ transformation into an AI-native organisation. With Alibaba Cloud’s advanced solutions and technologies, LuLuFin has adopted a multi-cloud strategy that strengthens business resilience, enhances disaster recovery capabilities, and guides the development of innovative, customer-centric financial services. Alibaba Cloud’s extensive portfolio of services, including its Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), PolarDB, and the EMAS mobile testing platform, provides LuLuFin with unprecedented agility, scalability, and security.

Additionally, by leveraging Alibaba’s proprietary large language model Qwen, LuLuFin is developing an internal AI agent called Treasury AI, as part of the joint Agentic AI development program. This intelligent platform is engineered to optimise fund allocation and movement

Joseph Cleetus, VP of Business Transformation, LuLu Financial Holdings said: “AI is no longer on the horizon. It’s already transforming the way we live, work, and transact. This collaboration marks a pivotal step forward in our journey to redefine cross-border payments, not just as a service, but as an intelligent, anticipatory experience. Together with Alibaba Cloud, we are building a future where technology doesn’t just support finance — it elevates it.”