// NEWS //
Ant International unveils global development centre in Malaysia
Ant International has officially opened its Global
Development Centre( GDC) in Kuala Lumpur, deepening its long-term commitment to Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and strengthening the country’ s role as a strategic hub for global innovation, digital talent and next-generation financial technology. The unveiling ceremony was officiated by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Cyril Han, CEO of Ant Group, said,“ With a visionary leadership and a vibrant business and tech community, Malaysia is on the way to becoming a leading regional and global hub for digital and AI innovation. In the next six to 12 months, the Agentic AI revolution will be in full swing, bringing about a revolution in commerce that we need to prepare for now, to ensure it drives both business growth and social development. Ant has many deep and longterm partnerships in Malaysia and the region, and with the unveiling of the Ant International Global Development Centre in Kuala Lumpur, we stand ready to support the AI Nation 2030 vision and digitalisation of Malaysia.”
Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International, said:“ Ant International’ s development evolves around the‘ 6T’ sustainable development strategy: facilitating global travel, empowering global trade, promoting robust growth, driving innovation through technology, nurturing digital talent and building a trustworthy digital ecosystem. This aligns perfectly with Malaysia’ s national agenda of promoting Digital Transformation and stimulating the vitality of micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises. We are committed to long-term investments into growing world-calibre innovators as well as AI commerce solutions from Malaysia.”
Techstars and Emirates NBD partner to accelerate enterprise-grade AI and FinTech solutions
focusing on compliance, wealth management, SME banking and capital markets.
This initiative underscores Emirates NBD’ s commitment to the Dubai Economic Agenda( D33), which aims to rank Dubai among the top four global financial centres by 2033.
Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the Middle East, North
Africa and Türkiye( MENAT) region, and start-up accelerator, Techstars, announced a strategic partnership centred on a commercially-driven‘ Acceleration-to-Enterprise’ model to integrate high-growth AI and FinTech innovations directly into the bank’ s regional ecosystem encompassing multiple markets.
Combining Techstars’ global pipeline of over 11,000 founders with the bank’ s advanced analytics infrastructure, which currently manages over 50 active AI use cases, will deliver scalable, commercial pathways for agentic FinTech start-ups
Miguel Rio Tinto, Group Chief Digital and Information Officer at Emirates NBD, said:“ With Dubai now home to nearly 60 % of GCC FinTech companies, we are pleased to partner with Techstars to tap into and capture FinTech’ s new wave of innovation in agentic finance. Leveraging Emirates NBD’ s regional footprint and digital capabilities, we are providing selected AI and FinTech startups with a direct pathway into enterprise banking, supporting solutions that can transform how we serve our nine million active customers.”
Neeraj Makin, Group Head of Strategy, Analytics and Venture Capital at Emirates NBD, said:“ The partnership with Techstars reflects Emirates NBD’ s continued focus on strengthening its innovation ecosystem and deepening engagement with global technology and start-up networks.”
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