In 2024, Arcapita and Dgpays agreed to acquire a majority stake in NEOPAY, the payments business Mashreq built in-house, at a valuation of approximately $385 million. The same year, Mashreq launched NeoVentures, its corporate venture arm, to turn that build-and-commercialise approach into a standing model.
Amith Rajan, Head of Wholesale Digital Banking at Mashreq and CEO of NeoVentures, joins FinTech TV’s Raghda Ibraheem on Wall Street to MENA to explain why a bank would build and back startups rather than only partner with them.
His starting point is practical. When Mashreq could not find a product in the market that worked, it built one. Once built, the question became how to take it to market and spin it off as a venture. The bank now runs on what he calls a build-to-sell philosophy.
On investing, NeoVentures comes in as strategic partner first and financial investor second, and never as a majority owner. With partnerships across more than 35 banks and fintechs, its offer to founders is regulatory cover, access to Mashreq’s customers, geographies and systems, and patient capital with no pressure to return money in the next few years.
Rajan sets out what he looks for in a founder: experience and grit, genuinely disruptive technology, global ambition beyond the UAE and focus, particularly in uncertain markets. He also explains why bank backing does not make founders less hungry. Synergies between the startup and Mashreq’s business units are documented before investment, and both sides are held accountable for delivering them.
His sharpest point concerns the bank itself. He runs NeoVentures like a startup inside Mashreq, with the aim of disrupting the bank before the market does. Bringing startup technology inside is already shortening the bank’s build cycles.
Topics discussed: NeoVentures and Mashreq’s build-to-sell model, bank corporate venture capital vs independent funds, regulatory cover and patient capital, what makes a fundable founder, accountability for strategic synergies, startup influence on bank operations, venture building inside a bank.
Guest: Amith Rajan, Head of Wholesale Digital Banking, Mashreq; CEO, NeoVentures
Interviewer: Raghda Ibraheem, FinTech TV, Wall Street to MENA
