Sep 25, 2025

Morris, regarded as a seasoned investor and thought leader in this segment, believes fintech is still in its early days. In an interview with Aletihad , he said: “Worldwide financial service revenue is over $14 trillion. But fintech contributes only $380 billion, which constitutes a minuscule 3%. We are just at the beginning of the fintech revolution.” He is a passionate advocate of the disruptive mission of fintech. “It gives access to products and services that incumbent banks might never want to deliver. Buy-now-pay-later service is a perfect example of that. All of those offering this service are fintechs, none of them are banks.” QED Investors, with over $4 billion under management, has spent the last 18 years incubating fintech companies. It has made more than 250 investments and backed 31 unicorns. “Our sweet spot is the A stage of investing. Sometimes we invest even in seed stage,” Morris said, explaining that the A stage refers to the early growth phase of a company. Morris highlighted QED's work in developing markets such as Brazil and Mexico. “For example we were early investors in Nubank, which has turned into an amazing juggernaut of a business. We have seen the evolution of fintechs from small acorns to large oak trees such as Nubank and Klarna.” During his visit to Abu Dhabi, Morris said he was impressed with the supportive ecosystem. “We see the regulatory regime here being incredibly progressive and supportive, and people are very willing to dialogue with investors like us and with young entrepreneurs looking to build businesses.” He sees a “gravitational pull of talent in the UAE, which I think is going to be a bedrock of building out successful businesses in the future.” Explaining QED's approach, Morris said: “We prefer to watch companies and see how they're performing before we jump in with both feet. We're tracking and talking to lots of companies, looking at how they do relative to their projections, whether or not they're succeeding, and what it's like to work with them.” He added: “We want to bring our collective experience to this ecosystem to invest in businesses that can become massive companies based here and then expand into other regions. If we can find those companies and work with those young founders, that's a great experience.” Although QED is still a relatively new player in the Gulf, it has already made notable moves. It recently led a $33 million Series B funding round in NymCard, a UAE-based fintech that enables banks and financial institutions to reach customers with innovative products. “It is not a customer-facing product. It is an enabler. Most of the banks here are its customers,” Morris explained. NymCard acts as a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider, offering banks, fintech start-ups and enterprises the tools to launch financial products quickly and efficiently without building complex back-end infrastructure. QED has also invested in Hala Payments in Saudi Arabia, which provides embedded financial services to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Reflecting on his long career, Morris said: “I've been in the fintech business for over 40 years, even before ‘fintech' existed as a label. “I've had three unique perches in my career – first as a management consultant, then as a co-founder of a Top-10 US bank, and now as a fintech investor at QED, all in and around banking, innovation and strategy. Having deep expertise and experience really makes a difference. I really love working with people who are half my age, but twice as clever.”