sync. eyes Middle Eastern domination as it expands into the region

Open banking-powered fintech sync. has been selected to join the first-ever Qatar Fintech Accelerator, marking its first endeavour into the country. 

As part of the programme, sync. will open an office in Qatar in the next few months, it already has other offices in London and Malaga, Spain, and will use the new base to springboard its banking app into other Middle Eastern countries.  

The Qatar Fintech Accelerator programme was highly competitive, with over 350 startups expressing their interest in the programme and just 13 being awarded a spot. 

sync. is the only British fintech included in the cohort, with others hailing from Qatar, Singapore, Canada and Brazil. 

Ricky Lee, CEO and co-founder of sync., said: “We launched across Europe in August 2020 and we are excited that the Accelerator will allow us to expand our product to Qatar very soon." 

The 12-week programme, which was launched in collaboration with the Qatar Development Bank and Qatar Fintech Hub, is aimed at fintechs looking to expand internationally. 

sync. has had an action-packed 2020 so far with funding rounds, product launches and international expansion having played a large part.  

Back in August 2020, the fintech closed a £5.5m pre-seed round allowing it to officially launch, after having delayed its March launch because of the coronavirus pandemic, and set its sights on European expansion. 

Just two weeks after closing the round, sync. teamed up with TrueLayer to launch the fintech’s app in Spain, a partnership that was expanded further when the pair launched sync. in Ireland and France at the beginning of September. 

At the beginning of September, the fintech also received its e-money and open banking licences from the Financial Conduct Authority.