In February 2018, a new accelerator is set to officially kick off in Bahrain. The new facility will be focused on fintech startups in the Middle East and Africa, and will be part of Bahrain’s effort to be a regional fintech hub.

The facility, Bahrain FinTech Bay, was announced by the Bahrain Economic Development Board, a local investment firm, and fintech accelerator FinTech Consortium.

The new hub aims to accelerate the development of fintech firms and facilitate the communication between investors, entrepreneurs, government bodies, and financial institutions, according to a press release published by the Bahrain Economic Development Board.

The hub will be comprised of over 10,000 square feet (1,000 square meters) of usable space, art facilities, coworking spaces, communal areas, workstations, hot desks, and other shared infrastructure.

“We are happy to announce this partnership with FinTech Consortium and we are delighted to have the benefit of their expertise as we develop our own regional FinTech hub,” said H.E. Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).

“Bahrain today offers the most compelling and credible FinTech proposition in the Middle East. It is the only regional financial center to provide a complete offering for corporate and individual FinTech innovators,” said Maissan Al Maskati, chairman of FinTech Consortium Bahrain. “It has strategically provided the key ingredients that are a necessary to build a successful FinTech ecosystem including the Central Bank’s guidelines on FinTech, the introduction of advanced technological infrastructure through AWS [Amazon Web Services], and now the launch of Bahrain FinTech Bay. We are excited to be part of this initiative and will spare no effort to ensure its success”.