Six artificial intelligence startups have advanced to the next phase of Mastercard Lighthouse UAE, entering a four-month programme designed to accelerate commercial deployment, strengthen links with financial institutions and prepare emerging technology companies for expansion into international markets. The Artificial Intelligence Office and Mastercard Center for Advanced AI and Cyber Technology in Dubai selected Loyyal, NewForm Technologies, NodeShift, Polynome, Valura. AI and zypl. ai for the inaugural UAE cohort. The companies were chosen after 14 startups reached the final stage of an evaluation process examining innovation, management capabilities, business models, scalability and prospects for global growth.
The programme places particular emphasis on turning AI products into enterprise-grade solutions that can operate in highly regulated sectors. The six companies will work with mentors and industry specialists while building relationships with banks, investors and strategic partners. Their participation is expected to include product refinement, commercialisation planning and opportunities to test technologies against real-world financial-sector requirements.
Loyyal develops a loyalty platform combining artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. Its system is intended to help banks, airlines, retailers and other enterprises operate flexible rewards programmes while connecting different loyalty environments. The platform also uses personalisation tools to tailor engagement with customers.
NewForm Technologies focuses on agentic AI for regulated financial institutions. Its FinAI Studio is designed to automate complex banking processes while addressing data privacy and security requirements. Such systems reflect growing interest among banks in AI agents capable of executing multi-stage tasks rather than merely providing information or generating content.
Abu Dhabi-headquartered NodeShift is tackling another major obstacle to enterprise AI adoption: the movement of confidential information into external models. Its technology anonymises sensitive material before queries are processed by models such as Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini. The approach is aimed at allowing organisations to use advanced AI services while limiting exposure of financial, personal or proprietary information.
Polynome develops multilingual and multimodal agentic AI technology for financial institutions, government organisations, aviation and transport. Its systems are intended to automate customer interactions and operational processes in Arabic and English, addressing demand for AI applications adapted to the linguistic and service requirements of Gulf markets.
Valura. AI brings an investment-management focus to the cohort. Its platform covers functions ranging from customer onboarding and asset allocation to portfolio monitoring and automated rebalancing. The technology is designed to operate across global markets through licensed channels in the UAE and India.
Synthetic-data specialist zypl. ai concentrates on credit risk, fraud detection and collections management. Its technology creates artificial datasets that can supplement limited historical information when financial institutions develop risk models. The company says its systems are deployed across more than 20 markets, illustrating the growing commercial interest in synthetic data where privacy restrictions or limited borrower histories make conventional model development difficult.
The cohort represents the first group to pass through Mastercard Lighthouse UAE since the programme was launched in May. The UAE edition targets AI-powered fintech, agentic commerce, personalisation, risk management, trust, operational resilience and financing technologies for micro, small and medium enterprises.
Participants will receive strategic guidance from Mastercard specialists and gain exposure to an ecosystem that includes Hub71, Global Ventures, Further Ventures, Shorooq, VentureSouq, Dubai Future District Fund and the Emirates Institute of Finance Innovation Hub. The programme is scheduled to culminate in a Demo Day, when founders will present their products and progress to investors and other participants in the innovation ecosystem.
Mastercard Lighthouse began in the Nordic and Baltic markets in 2018 before expanding to Türkiye and the UAE. The broader initiative has facilitated more than 300 collaborations and generated over $1.3 billion in investment across its network, with 228 companies passing through the programme.
Dr Abdelrahman Al Mahmoud, Director at the Artificial Intelligence Office, said investment in AI startups represented investment in the future economy, with collaboration between government and private-sector organisations helping companies refine products and expand internationally. Gina Petersen-Skyrme, Mastercard’s country manager for the UAE and Oman, said the first cohort brought together companies with different strengths but a common ambition to develop financial-services and AI technologies.
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