Jeel, Fintech Saudi to accelerate financial innovation in the Kingdom

18/09/2025 04:18 AST

As Saudi Arabia enhances its transformation under Vision 2030, fintech has become one of the Kingdom's most dynamic and fast-growing sectors.

Supporting the vision, Fintech Saudi has partnered with Jeel a leading technology ecosystem provider and accelerator, powered by Riyad Bank, to drive innovation and strengthen the national fintech ecosystem.

Through this collaboration, Jeel has launched its Jeel Sandbox as the pioneering technical platform for the Saudi fintech community, empowering the development, experimentation, and licensing journey in partnership with Fintech Saudi.

It enables innovators, startups, and financial institutions to safely test and scale their ideas. This milestone represents one of the first initiatives of its kind in Saudi Arabia - a significant step toward building a future-ready financial sector.

Jeel Sandbox is a secure, locally hosted testing environment where innovators can safely experiment with APIs and new financial solutions without impacting live banking systems, rapidly prototype using mock data to validate ideas at speed, and scale with confidence - moving from concept to MVP to market-ready products faster than ever.

Looking ahead, Jeel Sandbox is set to become the gateway to Saudi Arabia's financial innovation ecosystem.

Beyond providing a secure testing ground, Jeel will provide the platform with a full innovation lifecycle environment, enabling User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and the rollout of advanced services such as Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS).

Mazen Pharaon, Vice Chairman of Jeel, emphasized the platform's impact, saying: "This launch represents a major milestone not only for Jeel but for the entire fintech community in Saudi Arabia. Jeel Sandbox is a catalyst for collaboration, innovation, and growth - building bridges between financial institutions, startups, and innovators who are shaping the future of finance."

Echoing this vision, George Harrak, CEO of Jeel, added: "The launch of Jeel Sandbox brings tangible advantages to innovators across the Kingdom: lowering barriers to entry for startups with ready-to-use testing infrastructure, accelerating innovation cycles to reduce time from concept to market, providing a compliance-first environment that gives entrepreneurs confidence to experiment without risk, and enabling collaboration between fintechs and banks across the ecosystem."

"Jeel Sandbox will accelerate the development of cutting-edge fintech solutions, nurture homegrown talent, and attract international fintechs eager to enter the Saudi market."

Through this partnership, Jeel and Fintech Saudi reaffirm their shared commitment to building a dynamic, secure, and future-ready financial sector - one that positions Saudi Arabia as a global hub for fintech innovation.

Saudi Gazette