Today's Edition
DUBAI (ALETIHAD)
Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, on Monday 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 commitment 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.
Vice President of Alibaba Cloud International, General Manager of the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, Eric Wan, 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’s transformation into an AI-native organisation.
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 programme.
This intelligent platform is engineered to optimise 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.
VP of Business Transformation, LuLu Financial Holdings, Joseph Cleetus, 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 the 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 organisations 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.
