Alibaba Cloud Expands Fintech Footprint with LuLu Financial Holdings and Ant Digital Technologies AI Partnerships
New collaborations pledge to accelerate financial innovation and resilience through advanced cloud solutions and Gen-AI technologies
Dubai, The United Arab Emirates, May , 2025 – Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, today announced its strategic partnerships with LuLu Financial Holdings('LuluFin'), a leading UAE-based financial services company and Ant Digital Technologies during the Dubai Fintech Summit 2025. These collaborations underscore Alibaba Cloud's ongoing commitments to supporting the region's digital transformation by equipping businesses with effective tools and robust infrastructure to thrive in an AI-powered world.
These alliances come amid a wave of AI-led disruption and digital reinvention in the UAE and the wider GCC, where financial institutions are being redefined by national innovation strategies, ecosystem investments, and future-focused talent development. This technological shift holds immense economic potential, with McKinsey estimating a $1 trillion annual value opportunity in global banking, and PwC projecting a $320 billion contribution to the Middle East's economy by 2030.
Eric Wan, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud International, General Manager of the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said: 'We've always believed that technology has the power to drive real-world change, and our collaboration with leading financial institutions like LuLu Financial Holdings and Ant Digital Technologies reinforces this belief. It allows us to support them not just adapt but thrive in an increasingly digital world. With our dynamic cloud solutions and AI capabilities, we're supporting their journey to deliver smarter, more secure financial services – unlocking countless opportunities and reimagining the future of the financial sector.'
Alibaba Cloud's robust cloud infrastructure and Generative AI capabilities are key to LuLuFin' transformation into an AI-native organization. With Alibaba Cloud's advanced solutions and technologies, LuLuFin has adopted a multi-cloud strategy that strengthens business resilience, enhances disaster recovery capabilities, and guides the development of innovative, customer-centric financial services. Alibaba Cloud's extensive portfolio of services, including its Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), PolarDB, and the EMAS mobile testing platform, provides LuLuFin with unprecedented agility, scalability, and security.
Additionally, by leveraging Alibaba's proprietary large language model Qwen, LuLuFin is developing an internal AI agent called Treasury AI, as part of the joint Agentic AI development program. This intelligent platform is engineered to optimize fund allocation and movement. Treasury AI helps in transaction costs, currency exposure, and regulatory compliance. These innovations, powered by Qwen, are poised to significantly enhance LuluFin's service capabilities, revamp customer interactions, and streamline decision-making through predictive analytics and natural language processing.
Joseph Cleetus, VP of Business Transformation, LuLu Financial Holdings said: 'AI is no longer on the horizon. It's already transforming the way we live, work, and transact. This collaboration marks a pivotal step forward in our journey to redefine cross-border payments, not just as a service, but as an intelligent, anticipatory experience. Together with Alibaba Cloud, we are building a future where technology doesn't just support finance — it elevates it.'
During the Summit, Alibaba Cloud also announced its plan to deepen collaboration with Ant Digital Technologies to expand the suite of joint solutions into its Dubai region later this year, including ZOLOZ for digital identity verification, mPaaS for SuperApp development and operations, and cutting-edge AI capabilities tailored for the financial services industry (FSI). Leveraging the advanced technologies of Ant Digital Technologies and robust cloud and AI infrastructure of Alibaba Cloud, the partnership aims to deliver secure, scalable, and intelligent digital transformation services for local FSI customers. This initiative underscores both companies' commitment to empowering financial institutions in the region with innovative cloud and AI-native tools and trusted digital infrastructure.
By partnering with forward-thinking organizations like LuLu Financial Holdings and Ant Digital Technologies, Alibaba Cloud is helping businesses harness the full potential of technology to deliver meaningful change and create value for their customers and communities.
Alibaba Cloud has been a leading provider of cloud services to local private companies and public institutions in the UAE and the wider Middle East region since 2016. It has a robust local ecosystem in the MEA region with partners covering banking, financial services and insurance, media, public sectors, and customers locally across different sectors.
Photo caption:
Eric Wan Vice President of Alibaba Cloud International, General Manager of the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and Joseph Cleetus VP of Business Transformation, LuLu Financial Holdings witnessing the strategic partnership between Alibaba Cloud and LuLu Financial Holdings with the launch of Treasury AI platform at Dubai Fintech Summit.
About Alibaba Cloud:
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) services. Alibaba has been named the leading IaaS provider in Asia Pacific by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner. It has also maintained its position as one of the world's leading public cloud IaaS service providers since 2018, according to IDC.
About LuLu Financial Holdings:
LuLu Financial Holdings is a leading global financial services provider, offering a wide range of services including cross-border payments, currency exchange, and financial technology solutions. With over 370 customer engagement centers in over 10 countries across the Middle East, Indian subcontinent and APAC regions, and a commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction, LuLu Financial Holdings continues to set benchmarks in the financial services industry.
About Ant Digital Technologies:
Ant Digital Technologies is the technology commercialization business division of the Ant Group, which started independent operation in April 2024. Ant Digital Technologies originated from AntChain and has the leading technologies and patents in the field of blockchain globally. It has continuously developed several commercialized product brands such as ZOLOZ, mPaaS, and ZAN, with representative technological capabilities and businesses that are always committed to helping enterprises better embrace the digital age.
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