Fuze raises $14mn – largest Seed round for digital assets start-up in Middle East

Fuze has unveiled a record-breaking Seed round of $14mn, the largest Seed investment in a digital assets startup in the history of the Middle East and North Africa. Fuze enables banks, fintechs or enterprises to offer regulated digital assets products to customers through native apps.

Investment was led by Abu Dhabi-based Further Ventures, with participation by US-based Liberty City Ventures. Fuze will benefit from their strategic capital and network as it builds digital asset infrastructure that will drive the future of finance.

Fuze was founded by fintech, traditional and decentralized finance leaders, with its co-founders holding extensive experience in global businesses: CEO, Mohammed Ali Yusuf (Mo Ali Yusuf) held prominent roles at Checkout.com and Visa; Arpit Mehta (COO) led teams at fintechs Simpl and Clear; Srijan Shetty (CTO) built algorithmic trading systems at Goldman Sachs and worked at Microsoft.

With a regional digital asset market worth $566bn, growing at 48% YoY, Fuze CEO Mohammed Ali Yusuf believes the Middle East is perfect for a digital assets infrastructure business, “We are excited to build the future of regulated financial infrastructure and digital assets out of the UAE. Regulations have played a pivotal role in propelling the UAE into a central position within the global Digital Assets industry. To receive the backing of Abu Dhabi-headquartered Further Ventures combined with the deep expertise of US-based Liberty City Ventures, confirms the relevancy and potential of Fuze’s mission to rapidly expand our cutting-edge infrastructure across the region.”

Further Ventures commented, “This is an important strategic investment into digital assets, one of our core verticals. The team at Fuze is highly experienced and has a clear vision to develop a trusted, world-class digital assets proposition. Technology that enables a range of stakeholders is vital for the future of the financial ecosystem and Fuze is well placed to be a leader in digital assets across the MENA region and beyond.”

Fuze was founded in December 2022 and this year joined Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem. Its white-label solutions handle complexities of blockchain and regulatory overheads for enterprises, enabling organizations to readily offer digital assets such as stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, CBDCs and tokenized assets.