Markaaz CEO: Data Quality Helps Redefine FinTech Relationship Strength

Not all that long ago, a FinTech was easily defined — because the definition was broad. Seemed like any digital upstart promising to upend traditional financial services could be classified as a FinTech.

Hany Fam, CEO of Markaaz, told PYMNTS in a recent interview that the era of that generic approach is over. FinTechs now exist in granular, generic spaces where businesses are focused on impact and outcomes — the impact they have in the market and the outcomes their counterparties should expect while doing business.

“The way we’ve labeled them in the past has been through a mass aggregation of anything,” Fam said, “from data companies to payment companies to payment networks.” Specialization now is the way of the future, he said. And utility is critical, as customers use the service, benefit from it and repeat their use.

“Utility fosters trust, and trust does not come automatically in the market,” he said. “It has to be earned and re-earned on a day-to-day basis.”

The conversation was part of the “What’s Next in Payments” series, delving into what it means to be a FinTech in the early days of 2025, as those companies innovate while navigating the ever-tightening gaze of regulatory scrutiny.

The Markaaz platform improves data quality and verification for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and uses that data to fashion a constantly evolving directory of more than 542 million firms across the globe.

That centralized database enables enterprises, banks and FinTechs to streamline their onboarding processes and monitor compliance along the web of complex international business. The platform also enables SMBs to update their data, gain financial insights and connect with providers for their financing data.

As for the specialization, Fam said, firms have been coming to Markaaz after realizing that they do not want to be in the data management business, refreshing info on trading partners and other commercial relationships. Even the largest enterprises operating on a go-it-alone basis can only verify about half of the data that they’re collecting. Against that backdrop, outsourcing data management is a value-add as companies, including FinTechs, seek to redefine their own operations.

“The need for verification services and the need for accurate data about businesses has exploded,” Fam said. “We’ve never seen a time where people are admitting that the quality of information available about businesses and business owners is so poor and has been so poor, and it’s actually now affecting the way enterprises, banks, FinTechs, etc., do business with other firms — particularly newer businesses, and particularly smaller businesses.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a role in data collection and synthesis, with companies across the board using the technology to gather information. The issue has been making sure that the right data is collected (and even the largest tech firms, he said, have been at the mercy of finding data on smaller companies and trading partners that simply remains inaccurate). The Markaaz platform, Fam said, integrates extensive public data and pulls from 65,000 plus data sources around the world.

“We have real-time updates, but importantly, we can also pull in end-user contributed, non-public data” on 542 million firms, Fam said.

The FinTech platform will also enable SMBs to update their data, gain financial insights and connect with providers for their financing data. “When a business feels confident on the platform, [they will be able to invite] their counterparties to connect with them, and they say, ‘meet me on Markaaz.’”

Looking ahead, he said that beyond the confines of business-to-business information, Markaaz aims to extend its enterprise-level data capabilities to governments around the world, aligning with its long-term vision. He noted, too, that the platform’s 360-degree transparency ensures adherence to data sharing and privacy requirements.

“With our architecture,” Fam said, “we’re creating what we call a golden record of every business on the planet, active and inactive.”

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