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Saudi Fintech Industry Grows Threefold in 2020

The establishment of Fintech companies expedites in Saudi Arabia (Reuters)
The establishment of Fintech companies expedites in Saudi Arabia (Reuters)
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Saudi Fintech Industry Grows Threefold in 2020

The establishment of Fintech companies expedites in Saudi Arabia (Reuters)
The establishment of Fintech companies expedites in Saudi Arabia (Reuters)

Fintech Saudi has revealed in its annual report 2019/20 that it is seeing the emergence of a growing fintech industry in the Kingdom.

The number of operating fintechs has increased three-fold in a year, from 20 in 2019 to 60 this year, with over 100 fintech startups at the idea or pre-commercial stage, the report noted.

The Fintech Saudi Annual Report 2019/20 provides an overview of the development of the fintech industry in Saudi Arabia over the past year and highlights a number of key developments that have taken place to support the growth of the fintech industry.

There has been an increase in fundraising deals completed in Saudi fintech for the year to date with the total investment amount already surpassing 2019 levels, it added.

“This is building up to a fintech market in Saudi Arabia that, according to Statista, is expected to reach transaction values of over $33 billion by 2023.

On the significance of this report, Director of Fintech saudi Mulaik al-Nejoud said the period extending from 2019 till 2020 has been pivotal for the fintech industry in the Kingdom.

“Despite the challenges of COVID-19, we have seen progress in regulations, infrastructure and an increasing number of investment rounds in fintech companies.”

This has built a solid foundation to support the emergence of a growing fintech industry in Saudi Arabia that will contribute in a meaningful way to its Vision 2030, she stated.

The developments include the launch of Apple Pay, the establishment of Saudi Payments, and the continued issuance of regulatory testing licenses and regulations by the Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to support fintech activities.

There have also been major initiatives, including the National Commercial Bank (NCB) / Monsha’at fintech accelerator program and the launch of Riyad Bank’s fintech fund.

The report consists of a number of sections including an overview of the fintech industry by KPMG, the view from Fintech and MAGNiTT, and interviews with the SAMA Regulatory Sandbox and the CMA FinTech Lab.

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South Korea's Hanwha Ocean Targets US Navy Orders as Trump Seeks Shipbuilding Ties

Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
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South Korea's Hanwha Ocean Targets US Navy Orders as Trump Seeks Shipbuilding Ties

Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Steve SK Jeong, Head of Naval Ship International Business Department of Hanwha Ocean, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean aims to boost its revenue from overseas military vessels to around 4 trillion won ($2.91 billion) by 2030 and hopes to pick up more repair orders from the US Navy, a senior executive told Reuters.

The Asian country is a major global shipbuilder and trade talks with the US on tariffs brought up possible cooperation in the sector after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to restore US shipbuilding.

Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding, is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world with an order book of $31.43 billion as of the end of March. It acquired a US shipyard in Philadelphia last year to expand in the market.

Its naval ships business, which has built dozens of submarines and surface vessels used by the South Korean Navy, has won two orders from the US Navy since last year to repair and overhaul its ships for the first time.

"I think we may be the biggest shipyard in the world that has taken on these maintenance, repair and overhaul orders from the US Navy," said Steve SK Jeong, head of the Naval Ship Global Business at Hanwha Ocean, days after US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan visited its shipyard.

"It is not very profitable, but learning the process of working with the US Navy is valuable, which will help if we win newbuild orders."

Hanwha Ocean hoped to win a double-digit number of US Navy maintenance and repair orders before 2030, Jeong said.

Trump has vowed to spend "a lot of money on shipbuilding" to restore US capacity, and cited concern over how his country has fallen behind in an industry that is also dominated by China.

Still, US laws can make it harder for foreign shipyards even if they have US operations. They are prohibited from building US Navy vessels, due to the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment of the US Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

TRANSPLANTING PROCESSES

Hanwha Ocean's Philadelphia Shipyard is trying to get a license that clears it to build US Navy vessels, but transplanting cutting-edge manufacturing processes honed from competition with other South Korean and Chinese shipyards is not as simple as bringing in some automated welding machines, Jeong said.

"I think the US shipbuilding industry hasn't had to compete very much. Facilities are old, and there's a shortage of technicians," Jeong said.

"We are looking to modernize facilities, train and equip workers, and bring in our manufacturing process that can build the same ship in, I think, two-thirds the time or less as that of a US shipyard."

Jeong said the company is investing in South Korea to use existing facilities and expand naval ship capacity to build five submarines and three surface vessels at the same time by 2029, from two submarines and two surface vessels now.

Despite building 17 submarines for the South Korean Navy since 1987, Hanwha Ocean has only actively competed for overseas orders in the last few years as South Korea's low birthrate and shrinking military-age population risk cooling local demand.

It is competing to export submarines to Poland and Canada, a frigate to Thailand as well as knocking on the door in markets in the Middle East, South America, North Africa and Southeast Asia, to build up a sustained flow of orders that would bring foreign sales to 4 trillion won by 2030, Jeong said.

That would be about four times the size of its 1.05 trillion won of revenue in 2024.