- MENA’s largest ever Seed round for a digital assets infrastructure startup.
- Investment from Abu Dhabi-based Further Ventures and New York’s Liberty City Ventures.
- Fuze to provide regulated digital assets infrastructure for all institutions including banks and fintechs.
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and New York, USA: Abu Dhabi-headquartered Fuze, a digital assets infrastructure provider, has unveiled a record-breaking Seed round of $14mn, the largest Seed investment in a digital assets startup in the history of the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). A first-of-its-kind infrastructure provider in MENA, Fuze enables any bank, fintech or traditional enterprise to easily offer regulated digital assets products to their customers through their native apps.
The investment was led by Abu Dhabi-based Further Ventures, along with participation by US-based Liberty City Ventures. Fuze will benefit from the strategic capital and network of these investors, acting as a catalyst for the business as it builds the digital asset infrastructure that will drive the future of finance.
Fuze was founded by an expert team of fintech, traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) leaders, with its co-founders holding extensive knowledge from experience in global hypergrowth businesses: the CEO, Mohammed Ali Yusuf (Mo Ali Yusuf) has held prominent roles at Checkout.com and Visa; Arpit Mehta (COO) was previously in the leadership team at fintech leaders like Simpl and Clear; Srijan Shetty (CTO) built algorithmic trading systems at Goldman Sachs and worked at tech leader Microsoft.
With a regional digital asset market worth $566bn, and growing at 48% YoY, Fuze co-founder and CEO, Mohammed Ali Yusuf believes the Middle East is the perfect home to establish a digital assets infrastructure business, “We are excited to build the future of regulated financial infrastructure and digital assets out of the UAE. Regulations have played a pivotal role in propelling the UAE into a central position within the global Digital Assets industry. To receive the backing of Abu Dhabi-headquartered Further Ventures combined with the deep expertise of US-based Liberty City Ventures, confirms the relevancy and potential of Fuze’s mission to rapidly expand our cutting-edge infrastructure across the region.”
Further Ventures commented, “This is an important strategic investment into digital assets, one of our core verticals. The team at Fuze is highly experienced and has a clear vision to develop a trusted, world-class digital assets proposition. Technology that enables a range of stakeholders is vital for the future of the financial ecosystem and Fuze is well placed to be a leader in digital assets across the MENA region and beyond.”
Fuze was founded in December 2022 and selected earlier this year to join Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem through its Company Building Program. Its white label solutions handle the complexities of blockchain and regulatory overheads for enterprises, enabling these organizations to readily offer digital assets such as stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, CBDCs and tokenized assets.
The funding will propel Fuze’s growth as it obtains regulatory licensing, adds strategic hires in key roles, continues to expand its technological capabilities, and accelerates its geographic expansion across the region. Its products, such as Fuze Trader and Fuze Loyalty, allow banks, brokerages and superapps to offer digital asset products in a simple, easy and trusted manner.
“We are building a suite of products that addresses the growing demand for regulated digital asset capabilities through trusted channels. Our technology first approach is a game-changer for the region and offers our customers a reliable bridge to the new era of investments and to the future of finance,” said Yusuf.
About Fuze’s service line:
Fuze is the region’s first digital asset infrastructure provider, enabling any bank, fintech or enterprise to integrate regulated digital asset products natively. The company offers two core service lines as MENA’s premier fully-regulated digital assets infrastructure provider:
a) Fuze Digital Assets as a Service (DAAS) provides any bank, fintech or traditional enterprise to integrate B2B2C digital asset products natively into their business. Fuze’s white label solutions handle the entire blockchain complexity and regulatory overheads
b) Fuze OTC (over-the counter) provides a regulated, technology-first service for institutions and professional investors to execute digital asset trading. Fuze’s OTC promises efficient order routing, transparent pricing and low latency technology. Customers can interface directly with Fuze and conduct larger trades of digital assets efficiently and securely.
Fuze plans to be locally regulated in all key markets, supporting local and global currencies.
About Fuze:
Fuze is a first-of-its-kind, regulated digital assets infrastructure platform in MENA. Driven by a solutions-based approach, Fuze helps financial services providers to strategise, organise and implement digital assets infrastructure and quickly, securely launch regulated, world-class products.
Fuze offers a Digital-Assets-as-a-Service platform which enables banks and fintechs to integrate and embed regulated digital assets products in a B2B2C fashion, as well as an Over-The-Counter (OTC) service, supporting institutions, funds and HNIs (high net-worth individuals) to interface and conduct larger trades of digital assets.
In August 2023, Fuze announced a record-breaking seed funding of $14mn, the largest of its kind for a digital assets infrastructure startup in the region. The round was led by Further Ventures with participation from New York’s Liberty City Ventures. Fuze is headquartered in Abu Dhabi as part of the prestigious Hub71 ecosystem at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), and has regional offices in Dubai and Istanbul. The team at Fuze supports the rapidly accelerating digital assets ecosystem, working collaboratively with regulators on a long term view of the industry.
