Blackstone backs Abu Dhabi fintech bet

Blackstone has invested $250 million in an Abu Dhabi-based payments and data intelligence platform aimed at regulated digital markets, pressing ahead with a Gulf deal even as the war involving Iran continues to unsettle investors, energy markets and regional transport links. The investment in Advanced Digital Gaming Technology, or ADGT, marks what LSEG identified as the first private equity-backed inbound transaction in the Gulf since the conflict began on February 28.

Funds managed by the alternative asset manager have backed ADGT, a newly established platform launched from the United Arab Emirates through a partnership with Raya Holding, NRT Technology and Sightline Payments. Blackstone said the company is headquartered in Abu Dhabi and plans to focus first on the UAE, the Middle East, Africa and selected international corridors. The platform is designed to combine digital wallets, real-time funding and payout rails, identity controls and compliance monitoring in a single interoperable system.

The transaction points to a broader message from international capital: geopolitical risk has risen sharply, but investors still see parts of the Gulf as investable where regulation is tightening, infrastructure is improving and consumer-facing sectors continue to expand. Jon Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, said the firm saw “significant opportunity” to deploy capital in the UAE despite near-term headwinds, adding that the country’s strength in travel, leisure and technology created room for growth both at home and abroad.

ADGT is positioning itself around the commercial gaming and regulated payments market, a niche that has gained more prominence as the UAE has moved to establish a formal federal framework for gaming oversight. Reuters reported in 2023 that the country created the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority and appointed industry veterans from the United States to lead it. In October 2024, Wynn Resorts said it had received the first commercial gaming operator’s licence in the UAE, a milestone widely viewed as opening the door to a tightly controlled but potentially lucrative new segment of tourism and entertainment.

Blackstone’s own statement goes further, describing ADGT as the only licensed platform able to contract directly with both land-based venues and online digital platforms in the UAE commercial gaming market. It says the company was built to support national-scale deployments and cross-border interoperability, suggesting an ambition that extends well beyond a narrow payments processor role. Michael Dominelli, chief executive of ADGT, said the business was created in the UAE “from the ground up” with resilience, scalability and regulatory discipline at its core.

That growth pitch lands at a difficult moment for the region’s wider economy. Since the war started, oil prices have jumped and volatility has rippled across currencies, equities and debt markets. Reuters reported on March 27 that foreign investors had pulled a record net $12.14 billion from equities in India since the conflict began, while the rupee slid to fresh lows as higher crude prices deepened inflation concerns. Barclays said a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz could remove 13 to 14 million barrels a day from supply, a shock it described as the biggest geopolitical hit to energy markets since the 1990 Gulf War.

The financial system has not been immune. European Central Bank Vice-President Luis de Guindos warned this week that the conflict could yet trigger systemic stress through interconnected vulnerabilities, even if euro zone banks’ direct exposure remains limited. That assessment captures the tension now facing dealmakers in the Gulf: the region still offers capital, policy momentum and global connectivity, but those advantages are being tested by war risk, shipping disruption and the knock-on effects of higher energy prices.

Against that backdrop, Blackstone’s move looks less like a routine private equity placement and more like a strategic wager on the Gulf’s long-term institutional build-out. The firm has operated in the UAE since 2010 and says its investments in the country already include GLIDE, a pan-GCC logistics platform developed with Lunate, and Property Finder, the online real estate marketplace. The ADGT investment adds payments infrastructure to that portfolio and aligns with a regional shift towards regulated, digitally enabled services that can scale across borders.