Global payments platform Adyen selects DIFC for its regional headquarters

By Edil Corneille

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a global financial centre and an innovation hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, welcomed global payment technology provider Adyen, a company that has a market capitalisation of €66.4 billion and processed over €303.6 billion worth of transactions in 2020.

Dutch firm Adyen announced its expansion into the Middle East in November 2020. The company selected the DIFC as the location for its regional headquarters due to the centre’s regional reach and comprehensive ecosystem. Expanding to Dubai complements Adyen’s presence in other financial hubs across the world such as New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.

The merchant base of Adyen will be enabled to launch operations in the region. Merchants from the region will be provided with frictionless access to the full strength of the Adyen platform.

The centre’s comprehensive financial ecosystem is said to continue to attract global payments and technology players to the region in order to scale via accessing MEASA markets. Adyen will join the region’s broadest and deepest community of growth stage start-ups, established financial services companies, venture capital and educational entities that are working together to create a bright future across financial and economic sectors.

Arif Amiri, Chief Executive Officer, DIFC Authority enthused, “We are pleased that Adyen has selected DIFC as their regional office for the Middle East. They are joining the region’s largest, most innovative and forward-thinking community of more than 2,500 financial related businesses who are working with us to shape the future of the industry. We are confident that our connectivity, ecosystem, infrastructure, laws and regulations will help them expand successfully across the region.”

“Being part of DIFC’s ecosystem will help Adyen build out our offering to support the needs of both international as well as local merchants,” Sander Maertens, Head of Middle East at Adyen elucidated. “Opportunities in the Middle East region are prevalent. We are looking forward to growing in the region and DIFC was the natural choice for Adyen.”