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AKcess Brings Its Blockchain-Based Digital ID Solution To Kuwait
Designed to make both paper and online forms obsolete, AKcess uses nothing but a smartphone app to collect and validate KYC data.
Companies in the financial sector, as well as governments and enterprises, spend a lot of time, effort, and money verifying the identities of their customers. That’s because the so-called Know Your Customer (KYC) process often relies on outdated technology and inefficient manual processes. AKcess would like to revolutionize the KYC process using its secure digital ID solution for private and commercial use.
The solution takes advantage of blockchain technology (the same technology that powers and secures cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin), using it to immutably store collected user data.
Designed to make both paper and online forms obsolete, AKcess uses nothing but a smartphone app to collect and validate KYC data. The submitted information can then be verified in a number of different ways, such as by taking a selfie or using a third-party verifier. When a user approaches an institution that collects KYC information, he or she can simply share it via AKcess, making onboarding effortless.
“KYC is a major challenge for all financially regulated and unregulated companies, but the bigger challenge is to update the KYC after initial onboarding of a client,” said Nehme AbouZeid, Founding member and Chief Technology Officer of Akcess, in an interview with Entrepreneur Magazine. “Using a combination of our mobile app and our blockchain network, we were able to find a solution acceptable to all parties, the regulator and the institutions.”
Also Read: New Digital ID Verification Solution Available To Turkish Fintech Apps
The blockchain-based digital ID solution could be a boon to banks, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), government organizations, educational institutions, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and more. In other words, its impact could be significant.
AKcess has recently opened offices in Kuwait, and the company also has projects underway in several other countries in the Middle East including Egypt, UAE, and Qatar.
News
Trip.com Is Betting An AI Agent Will Book Your Next Vacation
Abu Dhabi, Jazeera Airways and a run of hotel deals give the company more inventory. Its Mastercard demo says the most about where booking technology is headed.
Most of what Trip.com Group announced at Arabian Travel Market 2026 this week reads like the standard expansion playbook of an online travel agency: a new agreement with a tourism board, a run of hotel partnerships, an airline deal. However, one item was considerably more interesting: a demonstration built with Mastercard of an AI agent that doesn’t just suggest trips but also pays for them.
The showcase put TripGenie, the company’s AI travel assistant, to work searching, selecting and completing purchases inside a single booking flow, with Mastercard’s Agent Suite for Merchants handling the payment step and Network International processing the transactions on the merchant side. It’s limited for now to attractions and ancillary services, but the partners plan a phased commercial rollout from early 2027.
“As traveller expectations change, technology and AI will play an increasingly important role in how people plan their journeys,” says Schubert Lou, CEO of Trip.com.
Meanwhile, in more conventional news, CEO Lou and Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry (Director General for Tourism at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi), signed an agreement building on the two organizations’ existing partnership, with joint marketing and Abu Dhabi destination content to be pushed across Trip.com Group’s platforms.
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On accommodation, the group expanded its partnerships with JA Hotels & Resorts, Ishraq Hospitality and Aleph Hospitality and deepened its work with Silkhaus, which brings vacation homes into a portfolio that has so far leaned on hotels. Jazeera Airways signed a strategic partnership intended to widen the Kuwaiti carrier’s reach and encourage earlier bookings, tied to Kuwait’s own tourism ambitions.
The company moved into a larger Dubai office earlier this year and describes its long-term aim as a two-way ecosystem: sending Middle East travelers abroad while drawing international visitors in.
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