Abu Dhabi's Adio signs deals to support two ADGM financial services companies

The partnership will help Florin Court Capital and Tribe Infrastructure to grow their international footprint

Adio agreements with Florin Court and Tribe will also help in expanding quantitative asset management, trading and advisory services segments of the emirate’s financial sector. Victor Besa / The NatioShow more

Abu Dhabi Investment Office signed agreements with two financial services sector companies in Abu Dhabi to help them expand operations and grow their international footprint.

The partnership agreements with Abu Dhabi Global Market-based Florin Court Capital and Tribe Infrastructure Group are a part of Adio’s Dh2 billion ($545 million) Innovation Programme, Adio said in a statement.

It is also providing the two companies with “competitive financial incentives” and will support them through its non-financial incentive offering throughout the partnership.

Adio's Innovation Programme is part of the Dh50bn Ghadan 21 Initiative, a three-year plan to boost the emirate's non-oil economy.

The agreements will help expand the quantitative asset management, trading and advisory services segments of the emirate’s financial sector, Adio said.

“The rapid pace of development in Abu Dhabi’s booming financial services sector gives rise to novel opportunities and creates access for existing and new players in the market,” Tariq Bin Hendi, director general of Adio, said.

“Adio’s partnerships with the two sector leaders will propel their growth from Abu Dhabi, as they capitalise on the emirate’s enabling business environment to pursue new strategies and expansion.”

As part of the agreement, Florin Court, a hedge fund manager specialising in the quantitative trading of alternative markets, will set up its trading, research and operations centre at ADGM. It will also establish a global internship and academic programme in mathematics, machine learning and finance at the financial hub.

Tribe, a financial adviser that tailors infrastructure project finance solutions for both governments and the private sector, will expand its existing financial advisory team and recently established funds management offering.

Founded in the UAE in 2011, the company has been headquartered at ADGM since 2016 and operates in key markets in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Australia. Through the Adio partnership, it will engage with Abu Dhabi’s local talent through training and overseas secondments, according to the statement.

Adio, the government entity responsible for attracting and facilitating investment in Abu Dhabi, also provides support to innovation-led ventures in sectors including information and communications technology, health services and biopharma, AgTech and tourism.

In July, Adio extended Dh90m in funding and non-financial incentives to three technology companies to grow their operations. It is supporting UAE-based companies Lyve and Rizek, and UK-based Callsign to build a regional presence through its Innovation Programme.

"The three of them fit very, very well within our ICT cluster approach and [are] part of this wider innovation approach we are keen on expanding," Mr Bin Hendi told The National at the time.

"All three businesses approached us and ... it did not take very long for them to see the advantage of being in Abu Dhabi and how we could help them."

The three funding agreements in July pushed the total amount of incentives provided this year to more than Dh865m.

Adio has already provided backing this year to Amazon Web Services, video-streaming platform Starzplay, music-streaming service Anghami and cloud management company Bespin Global to allow them to open major operations in the UAE capital.

In June, Adio also joined hands with Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem Hub71 to help it scale up early stage tech start-ups through fresh investment.

The partnership aims to support Hub71's The Outliers programme, which connects selected start-ups with the emirate's companies, particularly those under Mubadala and industrial holding firm ADQ, as well as local and federal government agencies, to increase their market access.