Jeel and Mambu Join Forces to Power Saudi Arabia's Fintech Sandbox

Riyad Bank's innovation subsidiary Jeel has partnered with Mambu's cloud-native banking platform to power the Jeel Sandbox, enabling startups and financial institutions to test and deploy Banking-as-a-Service solutions in Saudi Arabia.

The sandbox provides a controlled environment where fintech companies can build and test banking products using Mambu's composable platform without the complexity and cost of establishing their own banking infrastructure. Jeel said the sandbox lowers the barrier to entry for fintechs looking to launch financial products in the Saudi market.

Mambu's cloud-native architecture provides the core banking, lending, and payments capabilities that sandbox participants can use to prototype and test their products. The platform's API-first design enables rapid integration with external services and data sources.

The partnership reflects Riyad Bank's strategy of using Jeel as a platform for fintech ecosystem development in Saudi Arabia. By providing sandbox infrastructure, Jeel creates a pipeline of potential fintech partners and encourages innovation that could ultimately benefit Riyad Bank's broader business.

SAMA has been actively encouraging sandbox environments as a way to support fintech development while maintaining regulatory oversight. The Jeel-Mambu sandbox operates within this regulatory context, giving participants a pathway to licensed operations if their products prove successful.

The partnership adds to Jeel's growing roster of technology relationships, which includes its earlier MoU with zypl.ai for AI-driven credit scoring.