Head of Middle East Ecosystem

About the role

The Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab, a joint initiative between Cedar Group and IBS Intelligence, incubates early-stage fintech companies and offers go-to-market support. The Head of Middle East Ecosystem owns the Lab end-to-end, from strategy and startup curation to program design, corporate partnerships and community presence. It is a practitioner's role, not a program manager, and suits someone who has led an incubator, accelerator or ecosystem platform and has genuine founder relationships.

Key responsibilities

• Identify, evaluate and onboard early-stage fintechs (seed to pre-Series A) across India, the Middle East and APAC, and run cohort programs with milestones, mentorship and demo days
• Build a live pipeline of founders in payments infrastructure, lending tech, regtech, insurtech, wealthtech and core banking, and act as primary relationship owner for portfolio companies
• Design and run go-to-market enablement programs such as sales playbooks, pilot support and warm introductions to bank and NBFC buyers
• Deliver training curricula for founders and ecosystem stakeholders, including workshops and masterclasses
• Coordinate with Cedar Hill Capital, the pre-Series A enterprise fintech AIF, on deal flow, joint programming and investor showcases
• Cultivate relationships with banks, regulators, VCs, corporate innovation teams and enterprise buyers, and turn sponsorship and co-branding into revenue
• Represent the Lab at industry events in India, UAE and APAC, and own the Lab's calendar, budget, KPIs and small team

Required profile

• At least 5-7 years of experience, with 3-4 years in a leadership role at an incubator, accelerator, corporate innovation lab or fintech ecosystem platform
• Proven track record of building and running startup programs
• Prior experience in India and/or international markets (Middle East, APAC); UAE or Singapore exposure is a strong plus
• Deep relationships with founders, angels, early-stage VCs and enterprise buyers
• Experience designing and delivering training programs for founders or enterprise teams

Required skills

• Working knowledge of BFSI (banking, insurance, lending or payments)
• Exceptional relationship-building and strong commercial orientation
• Ability to originate partnerships, sponsorships and program revenue
• Comfortable on stage, in a boardroom and with first-time founders