Game-changing partnerships ‘emerging in Bahrain fintech’

Game-changing partnerships ‘emerging in Bahrain fintech’

MANAMA: Leading global fintech players are seen establishing their presence in Bahrain in the short term with some game-changing partnerships emerging, a local expert with a top advisory firm has said.

According to Manav Prakash, advisory partner at KPMG in Bahrain, increased momentum is seen in the fintech space in Bahrain with leading players evaluating Bahrain as their regional hub and scouting for partnerships in the local market with traditional players.

Providing local context as the Pulse of Fintech H2-2021 – a biannual report published by KPMG highlighting global fintech investment trends was released, he said: “Payments, specifically is an area where we see a lot of emerging interest and use cases. Our view is that we are going to see a lot more innovative players establishing their presence in Bahrain in the short term and some game-changing partnerships emerging.”

Global fintech funding across mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) reached $210 billion across a record 5,684 deals in 2021, the report found.

Fintech funding in H2-2021 accounted for $101 billion of this total – down slightly next to H1-2021’s $109bn.

“2021 has been an incredibly strong year for the fintech market globally, with the number of deals soaring to