Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), has registered a total of 310 new companies in the first six months of the year, seeing a 25% increase from the same period in 2019.
This took the total number of active registered companies in the DIFC to 2,584, a significant achievement in light of the global pandemic. The Centre achieved continual growth throughout H1 2020, with an average monthly registration of 52 companies and two record-breaking months with 66 company registrations in March 2020 and 88 in June 2020 respectively. DIFC is now home to 820 financial related firms, a 22 percent increase year-on-year, and 11% increase in FY2019.
“During [the first half of] 2020, DIFC delivered a series of record-breaking months for registrations. This was achieved while we supported our clients during the global challenges of Covid-19,” said Arif Amiri, chief executive of DIFC Authority.
Representing DIFC’s focus on innovation and technology, FinTech organizations continued to be a significant area of growth. 87 FinTech firms joined the Centre’s technology and innovation ecosystem, boosting the number of licensed FinTech firms by 74% from H1 2019.
New financial services firms include TATA Asset Management, Samba Financial Group, Gazprombank, Funding Souq, Brookfield Private Capital (upgrade), and Decimal Factor Middle East, whilst new FinTechs include Ripple and KoFax Me Ltd.
The first half of 2020 saw DIFC FinTech Hive triple in size with the opening of a larger space in Gate Avenue supporting start-ups, scale-ups, and entrepreneurs. The expanded space further boosts DIFC’s dynamic ecosystem, providing businesses with access to funding as well as mentorship, knowledge-sharing and collaboration with leading global financial institutions.