Entrepreneur Middle East has granted its Best Fintech Innovation Award to FundedNext, a UAE-headquartered proprietary trading firm founded by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs. The Dubai-based publisher acts as the regional franchise of the US publication Entrepreneur magazine, focusing on corporate news, technological shifts, and entrepreneurial innovation within the Middle East.
Syed Abdullah Jayed, Chief Executive Officer of FundedNext, formally accepted the honor during a corporate ceremony at Al Habtoor Palace in Dubai on September 17. Attending the event alongside him were Chief Product and Growth Officer Dana Massey and Chief Legal Officer Anaklaudia Filadoro.
Jayed explained that FundedNext was set up to assist skilled global traders who encounter barriers due to a lack of operational capital. The company focuses on bridging this capital gap by offering a structured, comprehensive fintech ecosystem tailored to support independent traders on its platform.
The company was founded in 2022 as the flagship product of Next Ventures, a fintech group now operating across more than 170 countries. The parent group also controls FNMarkets, a regulated brokerage house. Next Ventures is headquartered in the UAE, maintaining branch hubs in Malaysia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka, while operating its primary back-office hub in Bangladesh.
NEXT Bangladesh Ltd. employs a workforce of over 500 people and consistently ranks as a top foreign remittance earner inside the local IT industry. Next Ventures has also achieved the Great Place to Work standard.
In terms of market growth, FundedNext placed second in the June 2026 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for the Middle East and Cyprus, leading all fintech entries. It also achieved 11th place globally in the Deloitte EMEA Technology Fast 500, noting a four-year revenue growth of 4,553.02 percent, after winning Global Prop Firm of the Year at the Finance Magnates Awards 2025.