A global accelerator programme for metaverse start-ups has been formed by Emirates NBD, a prominent banking organization in the MENAT, to improve customer experience for the emerging virtual economy.
The project is being undertaken in collaboration with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Fintech Hive, the biggest financial technology hub in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) region, which is powered by technology company Microsoft.
As Emirates NBD’s first foray into the metaverse, the accelerator programme positions Emirates NBD as a pioneer in the next stage of banking innovation and aligns with the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, which aims to place Dubai among the top ten metaverse economies in the world by 2030, it will also support more than 40,000 virtual jobs, and boost Dubai’s economy by US$4 billion in five years.
Since 94 percent of all financial transactions and inquiries are made outside of physical branches, the bank is looking into web 3.0 technologies to increase its digital presence and provide consumers more immersive experiences.
Consequently, to deepen its immersion in the virtual world, Emirates NBD is looking for top FinTech, digital experience start-ups, and rising technology firms operating throughout the metaverse landscape and will focus on three key areas: constructing virtual worlds to improve the consumer experience in the metaverse, building the technical stack to permit the switch to 3D, and enabling a decentralized payment system to let users to create, monetize, buy, and sell digital goods and services.
In line with this, throughout the course of a ten-week acceleration programme, the DIFC Fintech Hive will assess and match Emirates NBD with top start-ups presenting distinctive ideas on the value generation, experience, and technology stack required for the metaverse.
The culmination of this will be a demo day at GITEX when the chosen candidates will present their solutions for a chance to jointly build compelling client experiences in the new reality.
According to Marwan Hadi, Executive Vice President and Head of Retail Banking at Emirates NBD, the goal of Emirates NBD’s entry into the metaverse is to reimagine financial services utilizing extended reality and develop compelling new propositions for their clients in the emerging metaverse economy.
Moreover, for Miguel Rio Tinto, Group Chief Information Officer at Emirates NBD, with the help of the DIFC FinTech Hive and Microsoft, Emirates NBD looks forward to serving as a launchpad for cutting-edge financial services in the metaverse and actively participating in the co-creation of new customer experiences with cutting-edge start-ups from around the world.
Meanwhile, the Executive Vice President of DIFC FinTech Hive, Raja Al Mazrouei said that they are excited to work with Emirates NBD to launch the global accelerator programme for metaverse start-ups, which are expanding quickly and drawing interest from all over the world.
With this action, they are once again pledging to help Dubai achieve its goal of being one of the top ten metaverse economies in the world. Mazrouei also said that they would continue to incorporate the newest technologies in order to stay up with the accelerating momentum in the global digital realm.
