Fintech Sokin Wins DFSA Licence and Plans to Grow Its UAE Team to 100

The licence, issued to Sokin's office in the Dubai International Financial Centre, regulates it as a Money Service Provider under a Category 3D licence. That covers issuing payment instruments, executing payment transactions, account information and payment initiation services, and advising on and arranging money services. The company has also opened a new office at One Za'abeel and formed a strategic partnership with Seed Group, a company of The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum.

The licence gives Sokin's business customers local dirham accounts in the UAE, so they can receive payments in dirhams. It also lets fintechs and software platforms that build Sokin into their own products move money into and out of the country. Dirham deposits are held by Ruya Community Islamic Bank, which is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. Customers can hold dirham balances alongside 28 other currencies, and Sokin's network covers more than 70 currencies.

"This is not a satellite office for us," Vroon Modgill, Sokin's founder and chief executive, told Gulf News in an interview. "We have a proven business model and we're doing 100 per cent year-on-year growth." He said Sokin aims to double its transaction flow next year.

Founded in 2019, Sokin holds licences in 36 countries, runs eight offices and operates across 170 countries. It has raised more than $100 million from investors including Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and Prysm Capital. The company entered the UAE nearly three years ago as a partner of Seed Group. New hires will include roles in the partnerships team, which works with platforms that embed Sokin's multi-currency accounts.

The UAE payments market is crowded with banks and money transfer companies that have operated there for decades. Modgill said Sokin would not compete on price, arguing that a company operating in 10 countries can end up with about 30 separate banking, accounting and payment platforms, which Sokin aims to fold into one. In a price war, he said, "I might win one transaction, that's about it."

Sokin launched stablecoin accounts and settlement this year, and Modgill said it bought a company in March that provides the settlement infrastructure. It has also released an MCP connector that lets finance teams send payments from the AI tools they already use. Modgill said AI is used mainly for operational efficiency and that licensing still needs people: one regulator outside the UAE asked his team to remove AI note-takers from a first call.

Hisham Al Gurg, chief executive of Seed Group, said the group reviews more than 2,000 companies a year and backs fewer than 20. He described fintech as a good fit for Dubai because software can be customised and localised quickly.