Hamdan announces Ziina as winner of Dubai-it Award

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, congratulated Ziina on winning the Dubai-it Award for Companies in the Field of Business.

The award recognises its success in developing a financial platform built in Dubai that provides entrepreneurs with fast, convenient payment solutions, and its rapid transformation from a peer-to-peer transfer app into an integrated financial platform.

He said: “The Dubai-it Award for Companies in the Field of Business goes to Ziina. Built in Dubai by young Arab entrepreneurs, Ziina made accepting payments by phone simpler for thousands of businesses, with payment volume surpassing $1.5 billion in record time.”

Hamdan added: “Faisal, Sarah and Talal Toukan saw an opportunity in Dubai to build an integrated financial platform, which they named after their mother. Today, Ziina serves 500,000 users and supports 290,000 business owners. This is Dubai-it: building from the ground up, growing with ambition and creating an impact that extends beyond the business itself. Congratulations to the Ziina team.” Siblings Faisal, Sarah and Talal Toukan developed the Ziina payments platform from scratch in Dubai, offering a unified experience that lets individuals and businesses send, receive, save and spend money with ease.

The platform redesigned the payments experience to be simpler and smoother on mobile, and enabled business owners to accept payments directly through their phones without the need for separate payment devices.

Over four years, Ziina has introduced more than 13 products and features, enabling users to send, receive, save and spend money. Its payment volume has surpassed $1.5 billion, and the platform now serves 500,000 users and supports more than 290,000 business owners, including small and medium-sized enterprises and home-based entrepreneurs across the UAE.

The company achieved 163% growth in the number of active businesses on the platform within a year, with continued growth in its user base since its launch.

Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Chairman of The Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: “Dubai offers opportunities to everyone. For young Arabs, it provides an environment where they can build companies, develop capabilities, and turn ideas into extraordinary success. Dubai-it, the city’s philosophy of work, gives that ambition a clear direction: extraordinary achievement, with excellence, in record time. Ziina demonstrates the ability of young Arabs to help build the new economy, developing financial solutions that support business growth and open more paths to entrepreneurship.” He added: “Recognising Ziina with the Dubai-it Award honours a company that has turned the opportunities Dubai offers into Arab technological capabilities and tangible economic value. We want the award to inspire more young people to take the initiative and build successful businesses. Every successful company emerging from Dubai creates new opportunities and demonstrates that the ambitions of youth can become achievements that compete on the world stage.” Ziina’s experience reflects the Dubai-it approach to work: speed in development, excellence in the experience, and exceptional growth that turns financial technology into real value for individuals and businesses.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched the “Dubai-it” initiative to embody Dubai’s philosophy of work and its development model, which is built on achievement, hard work, and a determination to turn ambitions into tangible accomplishments in record time.

The initiative aims to embed a culture of achievement across institutions and companies, and turn Dubai’s philosophy of work into a sustainable institutional approach built on speed, mastery and impact.

Launched under the directives of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Dubai-it Award is an annual recognition of individuals and organisations that embody Dubai’s philosophy of work by delivering exceptional achievements to the highest standards in record time.

The award recognises individuals, projects, institutions and companies that have transformed ideas and ambitions into tangible results, demonstrating Dubai’s philosophy of turning vision into action and delivering meaningful impact.

WAM