00:14My name is Annabel Manda, I'm the Executive Vice President at Tahaleh, and we're here at the second edition of
00:20Mani2020.
00:22When you go into the second edition of an event, what's always really interesting is to monitor the deals or
00:29the business that's taken place over that year.
00:31I think it's been quite interesting for us to see the startups that participated in the competition now actually here
00:36on the show floor in the kiosk and SME area rather than, you know, in the startup area.
00:41So we're starting to see the progression of fintech companies locally and internationally, and we're being able to kind of
00:48watch their journey through the program, which is always interesting and it's nice for us.
00:52Secondly, what we're seeing this year is a lot more international participation and also at a larger scale.
00:58Given the regional conflict, you know, we've obviously been thinking about international participation as travel restrictions have changed over the
01:06last few months.
01:07However, I think what the event actually indicates is those international brands are here, they're here to stay, they're growing.
01:15And that is regardless of the economic situation, you know, and I think that that shows a huge level of
01:21commitment to Saudi Arabia.
01:23So it's exciting for us because obviously we're scaling, but the quality is increasing, the international presence is increasing.
01:31So that makes it a great addition for us.
01:36Every year when we come to planning an event, we do a lot of research.
01:41So that's whether it's primary research or secondary research.
01:44And what we do actually is we make thousands and thousands of research calls.
01:48So whether we're talking to the banks or the regulators or the startups or the international companies, we really hone
01:54in on what their pain points are.
01:56And I know that it's obviously been a huge topic and a very frequent topic across every single event, but
02:01AI is obviously what keeps coming up.
02:04When we look at it against the financial industry or the fintech industry, the frequent element that comes up, which
02:11is coming up a lot more this year than it did last year,
02:14is how do we implement AI safely using the correct regulation.
02:19And although that was a small theme last year, it is a huge theme this year.
02:23And you can see that frequently taking place across all of the different content hubs.
02:27So I would say on the content side, that is a major change.
02:30When it comes to other changes, I'd say the increase of the international participation.
02:35And I would probably also say the presence of the regulators actually here at the event.
02:40That's increased again this year. And the reason that that has is to ensure that companies have the right support
02:46when they want to either move to Saudi Arabia or scaling to Saudi Arabia.
02:50I would say the fundamentals have remained the same, but the quality has increased and the content has definitely changed
02:56year on year.
03:00The earlier that you enter a market, the better in my perspective.
03:04As Cahaluf, we entered early, we invested early, we scaled our office here.
03:08My advice to anybody in the fintech space or the financial space who are looking at Saudi as a potential
03:13growth market, absolutely enter now.
03:16You can come to an event like Money 2020 where you have the entire ecosystem under one roof.
03:21You can talk to the regulators, you can understand the roadmaps, you can understand how to get funding.
03:25You can understand how to do it safely and it's all under one roof.
03:29If you haven't done it yet, for sure, make that commitment now.
03:32And if you're ready to make that commitment, also be ready to make that investment.
03:36Scale up your office here, build your team here.
03:38That would definitely be my advice to companies looking to get involved.
03:42It's always hard to predict the next edition and I'll tell you why.
03:46The fintech and financial space, it is being disrupted by emerging tech companies.
03:51It's being disrupted by AI.
03:53When we look at the conversations from last year to this year, they've changed so significantly.
03:58So it makes it very, very hard to predict because it's so disruptive and it changes so fast.
04:03So I think the final statement that I will leave you with is if you want to experience it,
04:09come on site next year, fly into Riyadh, fly into Saudi and attend the event.
