Tarabut Gateway secures $13 million in its seed round

By Edil Corneille

Manama-based Tarabut Gateway, an open banking platform, has secured $13 million in its seed round. The company, which has offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London and Manama, reported that the funding will support it in scaling its team and expanding regionally.

The investment into the open banking platform was led by Target Global, a Berlin-based venture capital firm. Tarabut Gateway has also received the backing of other investors including Kingsway, CE Ventures, Entrée Capital, Zamil Investment Group, Global Ventures, Almoayed Technologies and Mad’a Investment.

The announcement follows Tarabut Gateway’s recent expansion into the UAE in October 2020. The business reveals that it will use the funding for further geographic growth and the development of its current offerings.

CEO and founder of Tarabut Gateway, Abdulla Almoayed, said: “The Open Banking industry is a catalyst for transforming the way banks and FinTechs in the region interact with one another. With regional regulators quickly adopting it in their strategies, Tarabut Gateway provides the infrastructure which enables enhanced collaborations between financial institutions and an increasingly agile and flourishing regional FinTech sector. Through diligent regulation, this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment for MENA to gain a leading position in the global fintech arena. Something that we are very proud to be playing a part of.”

As part of Tarabut Gateway’s growth planned for the next year, the business aims to hire 40 additional team members across MENA by the end of 2021. Since its establishment in 2017, Tarabut Gateway has developed an open banking API (application programming interface) that allows third-party financial services providers to securely access financial data and develop new apps and services. The ecosystem is said to allow all partner banks to accelerate their technological partnerships at significantly reduced costs.