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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (March 9th 2025): Jeel announced its collaboration with Google cloud, to empower digital and cutting-edge services to Saudi Arabia in the field of advanced AI capabilities, data analytics, and scalable computing solutions.
Jeel's partnership with Google Cloud, sets the stage for a new era of digital transformation in Saudi Arabia's financial and non-financial sectors as it unites Jeel's deep financial expertise with Google Cloud's AI-powered technology, advanced data analytics, and scalable cloud solutions, paving the way for smarter, faster and more secure digital experiences.
The collaboration enables financial institutions to modernize, scale, and introduce innovative services faster. Additionally, this collaboration will allow financial institutions to meet regulatory requirements, particularly compliance with Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) regulations, without compromising on innovation.
By combining innovative cloud technology and deep financial expertise, this collaboration is set to drive secure, scalable, and regulatory-compliant digital solutions for a variety of industries in the market.
George Harrak, CEO of Jeel, stated, “This partnership brings together cutting-edge cloud infrastructure with advanced AI capabilities, enabling the creation of tailored digital solutions that address the evolving needs of the Saudi market, with a strong focus on accelerating digital transformation across financial services, fintech, and other industries, and aiming to empower organizations with the tools they need to thrive in the rapidly changing digital landscape.”
Bader Almadi, Saudi Country Manager at Google Cloud, said, "This collaboration with Jeel represents a major advancement for the financial sector in Saudi Arabia. By integrating Google Cloud's secure, scalable, and AI-powered solutions with Jeel's financial expertise, we are empowering financial institutions to accelerate their digital transformation. This will enable them to create innovative, customer-centric financial products and services, enhance operational efficiency, and meet the stringent regulatory requirements of SAMA while fostering a more dynamic and competitive financial landscape."
By leveraging world-class cloud technologies, the collaboration will allow for seamless scaling, offering new opportunities for a wide range of customers. The resulting solutions will not only support growth and efficiency but also ensure compliance with local regulations, enabling organizations to remain competitive and innovative in the digital era.
Together, this collaboration is shaping the future of digital services in Saudi Arabia, providing the infrastructure and expertise necessary to unlock new possibilities and drive next-generation solutions across various sectors.
About Jeel
As the digital innovation arm of Riyad Bank, Jeel is dedicated to pioneering technological advancements and delivering cutting-edge solutions that shape the future of technology. With a focus on enhancing the digital experience for its customers, Jeel is at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.
For more information, please visit www.jeel.net.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – 15 December, 2024: Mastercard and Jeel — a subsidiary of Riyad Bank — are joining forces to enable digital and cutting-edge solutions such as AI to drive innovation in Saudi Arabia.
Introducing the novel offering to the Kingdom, the collaboration will see the two entities work together to serve all non-banking financial institutions (NBFI) market segments. This will provide seamless access to new digital use cases, such as Mastercard Card-as-a-Service (CaaS) and Bank-as-a-Fintech (BaaF) propositions to Saudi Arabia.
“We are very pleased to be working closely with Mastercard to empower new market segments and demographics with access to Mastercard's diverse range of innovative offerings and benefits,” said George Harrak, CEO of Jeel. “We aim to offer these propositions in several pricing schemes such as pay-as-you-grow subscription, making them as easily accessible as possible — in weeks as opposed to months. Ultimately, we believe this agreement will help support Jeel’s technological advancements in delivering cutting-edge solutions that shape the demand of technology in Saudi Arabia.”
“We are very much driven by our determination to advance innovative infrastructure and develop ecosystems that boost the Kingdom's prospects and transform its digital economy,” said Gaurang Shah, Executive Vice President, Product and Engineering, EEMEA, Mastercard. “As part of this mission, we strive to pioneer market-ready services and responsive platforms that cater to consumers' needs. Our collaboration with Jeel will further enable us to curate an advanced suite of novel solutions that advance the wider ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and beyond.”
This collaboration will bring unprecedented benefits to a wide range of stakeholders. It empowers non-banking financial institutions to bring innovative products to the market swiftly and efficiently with greater ease and peace of mind. Fintech companies can expect faster time to market by solving obstacles of BIN sponsorship and Mastercard digital first issuing assets access. As a result, consumers will also be empowered with greater choice, including a wider range of bundled digital financial products.
About Mastercard
Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
About Jeel
As the digital innovation arm of Riyad Bank, Jeel is dedicated to pioneering technological
advancements and delivering cutting-edge solutions that shape the future of technology. With a focus on enhancing the digital experience for its customers, Jeel is at the forefront of
innovation in the financial industry.
For more information, please visit www.jeel.net and follow Jeel on LinkedIn.
Transforming Banking: The Power Partnership of Jeel and audax Financial Technology
- - Leveraging Jeel’s technology innovation with audax’s proven expertise to modernise banking, the parties are intending to modernise banking across Saudi Arabia as a first use case.
- - Enabling rapid migration from legacy systems and flexible business models including Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), digital banks, super apps, and open banking solutions.
- - Facilitating ecosystem-wide integration to create new monetisation opportunities through real-time data access and seamless third-party partnerships.
RIYADH, 06 November 2024 — Jeel, the digital innovation arm of Riyad Bank, and audax Financial Technology (“audax”), a comprehensive digital banking technology solutions provider backed by Standard Chartered, have entered into a strategic partnership aimed at revolutionising the digital banking landscape in Saudi Arabia. The partnership brings together Jeel’s forward-thinking digital technology as an enabler of digital innovation, and audax’s proven track record as a solutions provider as the comprehensive plug-and-play banking solution powering Asia’s first Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering by a global bank. This partnership offers a suite of comprehensive solutions for banks in Saudi Arabia, with an initial focus on enabling advanced business models such as digital banks, BaaS, super apps, and open banking solutions.
Saudi Arabia’s financial sector is undergoing rapid transformation as part of Vision 2030, with a growing market for digital banking solutions driven by a tech-savvy population. The urgency of digital transformation is clear—banks must modernise to remain competitive in a fast-evolving economy, projected to reach $1.1 trillion in GDP by the end of 2024. The surge in digital wallets, from 315,000 users in 2018 to over 17 million by 2022, along with the rapid rise of real-time payments, emphasises the immediate demand for innovative, scalable banking models.
With initiatives like the SAR 300 million fintech-focused fund and the National Technology Development Program (NTDP) providing crucial funding and support for start-ups, the urgency of digital transformation in banking is increasingly clear. These measures highlight the opportunity for banks to modernise and capitalise on the significant potential created by Vision 2030, positioning them to compete and thrive in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.
While banks serve as the first application, these offerings are adaptable for other financial institutions and non-bank entities, allowing for seamless integration into a variety of ecosystems and extending the benefits of digital transformation beyond traditional banking.
In the shorter term, institutions in Saudi Arabia will benefit from rapid migration from legacy systems, unlocking new digital capabilities and flexible business models. Through easy integration with third-party vendors and ecosystem players, clients will be able to offer innovative services such as open banking and BaaS. This flexibility positions them to compete with digital-native challengers, drive customer acquisition, and improve operational efficiency.
In the longer term, the partnership between Jeel and audax will allow Saudi Arabia’s institutions to leverage a wealth of data across their ecosystems, creating new revenue streams and business lines. This includes opportunities such as real-time underwriting through third-party data access, cross-selling products through contextual offers, and even expanding into fee-based services such as KYC-as-a-Service and real-time data provision to consumer and SME-focused companies.
George Harrak, CEO of Jeel, added:
“At Jeel, we are committed to driving innovation and technological digital advancement. Our collaboration with audax enables us to deliver pioneering digital solutions that will enhance the agility and scalability across Saudi Arabia and the region. By integrating our cutting-edge technology with audax’s proven platform, we can accelerate the digital transformation of our customers, including banks, financial institutions and non-bank entities, and provide them with the tools they need to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.”
Kelvin Tan, CEO of audax Financial Technology, commented:
“We are excited to bring our proven digital transformation capabilities to Saudi Arabia through this partnership. By working with Jeel, we aim to accelerate the pace at which Saudi institutions can modernise and scale their digital offerings, ensuring they remain competitive in the evolving business landscape. Our partnership will empower them to launch cutting-edge solutions quickly and efficiently, creating new revenue streams and improving operational resilience."
About Jeel
As the digital innovation arm of Riyad Bank, Jeel is dedicated to pioneering technological
advancements and delivering cutting-edge solutions that shape the future of technology. With a focus on enhancing the digital experience for its customers, Jeel is at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.
For more information, please visit www.jeel.net and follow Jeel on LinkedIn.
About audax Financial Technology
audax Financial Technology is a comprehensive digital banking solutions provider empowering banks and financial institutions to scale and modernise at speed. audax Financial Technology has enabled new business models and revenue streams for Standard Chartered under the SC nexus proposition, becoming the first global bank to provide Banking-as-a-Service in Asia.
For more information, please visit www.audax.io and follow audax on LinkedIn.
