Raising capital is never just about convincing investors that an idea is interesting but proving that it can survive pressure, attract a defined audience, and grow with discipline. The region’s startup ecosystem is maturing, with early 2026 data showing funding activity remaining steady, with $327 million deployed in February alone across 62 deals, reflecting strong investor appetite but also intense competition. For niche companies, capital is available, but it goes to businesses that can prove commercially valuable demand in their category. MAXION, a UAE-based platform empowering social connections, puts together five fundraising tips for niche businesses preparing to attract investor backing.

Start with proof, not pitch

Investors are naturally careful with niche ideas because they are harder to size, explain, and compare. Founders should prove demand through users, applications, retention, revenue, or repeat behaviour, while clearly defining the underserved market they are building for. They also need to show why customer behaviour, market gaps, or timing make the opportunity commercially urgent.

Defensibility is just as important. In a market where an app can be built quickly, investors need to understand what cannot be easily replicated, whether that is founder expertise, proprietary data, community trust, or a product model shaped by years of real customer behaviour. MAXION’s moat comes from its “cupid in the loop” approach, shaped by the founder’s nearly decade-long experience matchmaking the world’s top 1% and translating those learnings into a tech platform for a wider audience.

Educate the market on your niche

Niche businesses often need to help investors understand the category before they can evaluate the company. Founders should explain the problem why existing solutions fall short, and how the business creates a different measure of value. A strong fundraising story explains where the company overlaps with existing players, where it performs differently, and where it has the potential to outpace them. In a niche category, taste, trust, and execution can become as important as technology.

In social connection apps, for example, the market cannot be understood only through likes or matches. Stronger indicators may include in-person dates, event attendance, quality of introductions, and connections that develop into lasting relationships.

Build a strong community

In a crowded consumer market, attention is expensive. Investors want to see that customers are willing to apply, engage, attend, return, recommend, and stay. A clear path to customers should be built before the fundraising process begins. They also need to feel confident that founders know how to reach their audience and can break through the noise with a clear marketing strategy. For MAXION, this proof came from its matchmaking business, with a curated community of over 5,000 members, 32,000 on the waiting list, and $750K secured in early-stage funding.

Founders need to understand where their audience spends time, who influences them, how they communicate, and what makes them trust a new product. This may come through targeted events, private communities, member referrals, micro-influencers, or highly focused social campaigns.

Focus on outcomes, not features

A company cannot raise capital on a strong idea alone. For founders raising from venture capital, the business case should come before the mission. VCs need to see the scale of the opportunity, revenue logic, unit economics, and a credible path to significant returns. Storytelling may open the door, but numbers make the business investable.

Investors also want to understand what changes because the company exists. A strong business should create access, build trust, improve retention, or solve a problem people repeatedly face. The company must understand its audience, deliver consistently, and show that the team can execute with discipline. Early engagement, behavioural data, a prototype, or initial commercial indicators can make that case far stronger.

Choose the right investors

Not all capital supports the same kind of growth. Niche businesses need investors who understand industry, customer behaviour, and long-term value built through community. Fast capital can become expensive if it pushes the company in the wrong direction.

Founders should look beyond traditional angel and venture capital routes and consider strategic investors, grants, corporate partnerships, and ecosystem-backed programmes where relevant. For instance, in February 2026, UAE-based startups secured $162.8 million across 23 deals, nearly half of the region’s total funding that month. This funding momentum is reinforced by government-backed initiatives such as the National Agenda for Entrepreneurship, Future100, Hub71, accelerators, free zones, and startup incentives that improve access to capital, talent, partners, and new markets.

Standard Chartered today announced the appointment of Michelle Swanepoel as Head of Financing and Securities Services (FSS), Middle East and Africa. Based in Dubai, she will lead the business across the region  effective 1 July 2026. Michelle succeeds Scott Dickinson, who will be retiring from the bank on 30 June after more than 40 years in financial services.

Michelle Swanepoel joined Standard Chartered in September 2017 as the Regional Head of Business Account Management for the Middle East and Africa and was appointed the Regional Head of Securities Services for Africa in May 2019. In September 2024, her role expanded to include Head of Markets for South Africa.

“Michelle has played a strong leadership role in the evolution of post‑trade servicing across Sub‑Saharan Africa, supporting capital market development, regulatory reform, enhanced investor access and market infrastructure, and is a recognised industry subject‑matter expert,” said Margaret Harwood-Jones, Global Head of FSS. “I have every confidence that Michelle will drive further momentum in the region, building on the solid foundation established by Scott.”

Scott Dickinson joined Standard Chartered in 2017 and he has led the Bank’s FSS franchise in MEA since 2019. During his tenure, he oversaw strong growth across the Middle East and Africa franchise, supported expansion into markets including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and helped deliver the Bank’s first Digital Asset Custody capability in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Exclusive interview with Premchand Kurup, CEO, Paramount

Which emerging cyber risks are most likely to influence or reshape GCC banking regulations in the coming years?

We live in an era where nearly every banking service depends on advanced digital infrastructure, and cybercriminals are aware of it. With the emergence of AI, the risks have evolved even further, enabling attacks that can adapt and operate at an unprecedented scale. Over the period of 2024–2026, GCC banking regulations in the region are being influenced by the convergence of advanced ransomware, API-driven open banking risks and AI-enabled cyber threats.

Firstly, targeted ransomware and data extortion attacks against banks and fintechs in the Gulf region have evolved from isolated incidents into a persistent and systemic risk. Financial institutions in the UAE and across the GCC region have experienced a noticeable rise in incidents and malware activity through 2024 and into 2025 by nearly 100%, and this is specific to Paramount. . In response, regulators are tightening requirements for incident reporting timelines, operational resilience testing and recovery capabilities within central banks and national cybersecurity frameworks, with these requirements expected to become more stringent in 2026.

Secondly, the rapid expansion of open banking and digital transformation initiatives has made API security and cloud exposure critical regulatory concerns. Misconfigured cloud environments, weak API authentication, and complex third-party integrations are creating new attack surfaces that traditional perimeter-based security models cannot adequately protect. As a result, regulators in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other GCC countries are strengthening supervisory expectations around identity management, data protection and third-party risk management within banking regulations.

Additionally, the rise of AI-driven fraud and AI-assisted cyberattacks is reshaping how supervisors view the intersection of model risks and cyber risks. AI is being increasingly used to support credit assessment, KYC and fraud detection, while also being leveraged by attackers to scale phishing, social engineering and evasion techniques. This dual-use nature of AI is prompting regulators to develop guidance on AI governance, explainability and enhanced monitoring of AI-enabled processes in the financial sector.

What is one underrated cybersecurity innovation today that you believe will become critical for the Middle East’s BFSI sector over the next few years?

One of the most underrated cybersecurity innovations today, and yet one that is likely to become critical for the Middle East’s banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector over the next few years, is behaviour-based analytics, which has become deeply integrated into security operations centre (SOC) functions and fraud detection systems. Numerous financial institutions still rely heavily on static, rule-based systems that trigger alerts based on fixed thresholds or known attack signatures. While effective against traditional threats, these approaches struggle to detect modern attacks that rely on lateral movement, living off the land (LOTL) techniques and sophisticated social engineering.

In contrast, behaviour-driven analytics establishs dynamic baselines for users, devices, applications and APIs. It continuously monitors the way accounts are accessed, transactions are executed and systems communicate, enabling early detection of anomalies that signal potential fraud or intrusion. These capabilities closely mirror the patterns observed in recent high-impact attacks on banks and fintechs across the region. For GCC banks navigating rapid cloud adoption, open banking frameworks and increasing use of AI in core operations, behavioural analytics is becoming essential. It allows institutions to distinguish legitimate high-volume digital activity from subtle intrusions, as highlighted in the report titled ‘2025 Global Digital Trust Insights – Middle East findings’.

Reflecting this shift, Paramount’s advisory and SOC services in the region are increasingly promoting a transition from purely rule-driven monitoring to a blended model that combines behavioural analytics, traditional rules, and threat intelligence. This integrated approach significantly improves detection speed and reduces false positives in complex Middle Eastern financial environments.

From the Paramount SOC’s perspective, approximately how many security incidents or threats have been monitored and mitigated this year

Over the last year we have issued over 592 critical advisories and mitigated them. Critical advisories are those that have the potential to halt business operations significantly.
The year 2026 has just begun, and we have issued nearly 100 advisories already.

Apart from critical advisories we have issued regular 318 advisories this year while the number stood at 2208 last year . We have just begun the year, but the number of alerts shows an increasing trend.

What types of cyber threats are most frequently detected and addressed by the SOC?

During the fiscal year 2024–2025, the most frequently detected threats identified by Paramount’s SOC include phishing and credential theft leading to account takeover, often using highly localised and AI-generated lures. SOC teams also regularly respond to ransomware and data extortion campaigns, alongside API, web application, and DDoS attacks targeting digital banking platforms. Moreover, cloud misconfigurations and excessive access permissions remain a persistent risk, frequently identified through continuous monitoring and threat hunting.

How can C-suite leaders better prepare their organisations, and what proactive steps should banks take to stay ahead of fraud and cyber threats?

For banks across the GCC region, C-suite leaders need to treat cyber resilience as a core board-level business capability, and not simply as a technical or IT function. With cyber threats having direct implications for financial stability, reputation, and regulatory compliance, leadership should embed cyber risk into enterprise risk management frameworks and board reporting. Major threat scenarios such as prolonged digital channel outages, data extortion incidents, or systemic third-party failures should be quantified and reviewed alongside credit and liquidity risks, in line with evolving GCC regulatory expectations. Leaders should further align their cyber strategies with national cybersecurity frameworks and central bank guidance, using independent maturity assessments to identify gaps and prioritise investments through 2026.

From an operational and technology perspective, adopting a zero-trust approach across identities, devices, networks and applications is becoming essential, particularly in API-enabled and cloud-based banking environments. This should be supported by strong SOC and incident response capabilities, whether in-house or through specialised providers such as Paramount, to ensure 24/7 monitoring, rapid containment and documented playbooks for both regulators and customers. Banks also need to invest in advanced fraud analytics and behaviour-based monitoring to detect account takeover and payment fraud, particularly as AI tools make phishing and social engineering more convincing, as witnessed in recent UAE ransomware trends.

Equally important is rigorous third-party and supply chain risk management. This includes structured security due diligence and continuous monitoring of fintech partners, cloud providers and critical vendors, given the growing risk of indirect compromised paths into Gulf financial institutions. Finally, C-suite leaders should actively promote a strong cyber resilience culture. This involves running realistic simulations of ransomware, data leaks, and payment fraud scenarios to sharpen organisational readiness and showcase proactive resilience to regulators, customers and shareholders.

Given the distinct regulatory, cultural, and operational landscape of the GCC, what makes cybersecurity in the region’s BFSI sector uniquely challenging compared to the US or Europe?

Cybersecurity in the GCC region’s BFSI sector is uniquely challenging because financial institutions operate at the intersection of rapid digital transformation, high geopolitical relevance and complex, multi-layered regulation. From a regulatory standpoint, institutions in the region must comply simultaneously with national cybersecurity authorities, central banks, and in some cases, free zone regulators. These entities impose detailed requirements on controls, data protection and incident reporting, creating a more fragmented and demanding compliance landscape than in many single-jurisdiction markets. The situation is further complicated by strict data residency and data sovereignty rules, which significantly influence how banks can design and deploy cloud, analytics, and cross-border platforms.

Operationally, GCC banks are advancing quickly into digital, mobile and open banking services, often faster than ecosystem-wide security maturity. While this supports financial inclusion, it also expands the attack surface through APIs, cloud services, and fintech partnerships. At the same time, the Gulf region has become one of the most actively targeted regions for financially motivated cybercrime and disruptive attacks, with banks and fintechs featuring prominently in 2024–2025 reports on ransomware, DDoS campaigns and sophisticated fraud schemes. The combination of rapid innovation, partner security, high attacker interest and evolving regulatory expectations creates a risk profile that is distinct from more established markets in North America and Europe.

In response, Paramount’s work with GCC BFSI clients focuses on developing region-specific security architectures and systems rather than simply importing models from other geographies. This includes designing frameworks aligned with local regulatory obligations, regional threat intelligence and the operational realities of Middle Eastern institutions as they evolve through 2026.