After Mukesh Ambani, Gortam Adani and Tata’s N Chandra Sekaran, it’s time for Kumar Manga Rambilla to look to the Middle East and build an important partnership. 

People know that Birla will partner with Hamad bin Zayed al-Nahyan, managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), to invest in Zand, the UAE’s first digital-only independent bank. Initially, the plan is to roll between $ 50 million and $ 100 million, but as the business grows, it could grow in the future.

The Emirate’s central bank is set up to congratulate the investment, and Birla, chairman of the $ 46 billion Aditya Birla Group, is well-suited to invest in the banking system for the first time as an Indian. According to Forbes billionaires, his net worth was $ 16.4 billion as of October 20, making India the tenth wealthiest billionaire.

The investment is expected to come from Birla’s private family office.

Zand plans to serve both retail and corporate customers. Emaar Properties founder Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa developer Mohammed Alabor have invested in and will chair the company. Al Nahyan’s investment vehicles, Al Hail Holdings and Birla, will be the latest attention-grabbing backers of the venture.

A Birla spokesperson remained unsolicited. Emails to Zand and AlHail Holdings did not generate a response.

“This will lay the foundation for a deeper, longer-term relationship,” said Birla’s family watchers. “Arunahyan is a key figure in the region, so it’s far more strategic, except for the commercial angle of supporting new ventures in rapidly turbulent spaces. This makes a similar alliance across the GCC. It opens up the possibility of being duplicated. This is not a business-to-company transaction, but for the first time two major family offices are working together. ”

Al Nahyan, a long-time Indian, has contributed to several high-value investments in India from the UAE. Since 2013, he has also co-chaired the High Level Integrated Task Force on Investment in the UAE and India. Earlier this week, the Dubai government signed a MoU to develop a real estate and industrial park in Jammu and Kashmir. This is the first initiative of its kind.

Zand will be led by Olivier Crespin, a former Citi Operations Private Bank head who later joined DBS and launched Divibank India in 2016.

“Supported by strong shareholders, we worked with the best bankers and technology to build a bank that fulfills our promise to understand and meet our customers’ needs. From our systems to our processes to our team. , We are built and ready, “Crespin said earlier in a statement.

Like India, digital, neobank and other fintech start-ups are ruining the financial services segment with nimble and high-priced products. The United Arab Emirates is already a crowded market with 48 banks, including major local banks such as First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NB and Mashreq Bank, serving a population of approximately 10 million. However, 30% of the population of the Middle East and Africa is between the ages of 15 and 29, accounting for about 110 million people, stand-alone players such as Yap, Bankiom, Hala, Pepper, Jingle Pay, or Meem, Liv. Bank, CBD Now, Mashreq Neo is picking mushrooms. In addition, the UAE’s 18.3 million mobile subscribers, with 200% mobile penetration, offer a great deal of room for growth. Another major FinTech opportunity is in the country’s global payments ecosystem, especially the remittances of expatriates in excess of $ 44 billion in 2019, according to central bank data.

Bahrain was the first country to launch government-regulated open banking products in the region and set benchmarks for other financial sectors in the region.

In the past, Birla has made private investments in media, entertainment and education. In 2015, the group launched Bizlabs, an incubation program to explore open-source innovation and partner with AI, fintech, machine learning, and big data analytics start-ups. Until the date, it supported 20 bootstrap ventures under the program.

Compared to Singapore, Dubai was a smaller global outpost for the AV Birla Group. Flagship Ultratech acquired Star Cement in 2010 to expand into the region. This is the biggest bet in the region. Even the asset management business Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC has a subsidiary in Dubai. In 2015, Aditya Birla Nuvo partnered with Dubai’s PE fund Abraaj to develop a large-scale solar power platform, but the venture never succeeded after allegations of fraud. Mismanagement of the fund has shaken the asset manager and its Pakistani-born founder.