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Dubai Student Launches Metaverse Real Estate Summit
The entrepreneur secured funding from the Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Program.

Volston Abreo, an electrical engineering and computing student at Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai, is preparing to launch an innovative real estate summit in the metaverse, known as Real Estate Worldscape 2023.
The summit will support education and knowledge sharing, helping boost Dubai’s property market. The event is based around a hyper-realistic “stage” featuring voice and proximity chat systems. Volston developed his idea with funding from RIT Dubai in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Program.
Aimed at bringing together global thought leaders and policymakers, Real Estate Worldscape 2023 will host 20 inspirational speakers and offer workshops, panel discussions, and Q&A sessions. Topics at the conference will include real estate, proptech, entrepreneurship and investments.
Explaining the reasoning behind the summit, 21-year-old Volston said, “The inspiration for our virtual stage, Flege, came during the pandemic when we saw the potential of the metaverse in creating an ecosystem where people connect to physical experiences through the virtual world. I decided to focus on the real estate sector to help launch the ecosystem because it is one of the most established industries here, yet it has been slow in the uptake of innovation. I wanted to change the mindset of people in the business, to show the value of bringing technology into the sector”.
The summit will also feature a simulation that takes delegates back to 2012 when Dubai was still recovering from the global financial crisis. Participants will “enter a digital twin of Dubai where their goal is to achieve cashflow by analyzing market trends and making sound decisions to buy and sell properties at the right time and from the right place,” Volston explained.
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Volston is already part of Dubai’s Silicon Oasis, with his own office and a team of seven employees. The student entrepreneur says his sights are firmly set on building a decentralized digital ecosystem despite not yet having graduated from RIT Dubai.
The Real Estate Worldscape 2023 will take place later this month.
News
Stake Powers Instant Payouts With Checkout.com Pay To Card
The new feature lets investors in the UAE, KSA, and UK receive real estate returns in minutes — cutting withdrawal times to under 10 minutes.

Stake, a leading digital real estate investment platform, has unveiled Pay to Card, a next-generation withdrawal feature built on Checkout.com’s global payment infrastructure. The integration enables investors to have dividends and returns credited directly to their bank cards — often within minutes — dramatically reducing the traditional multi-day payout process.
After a successful pilot in May involving over 200 users, some investors reported receiving their funds in under 10 minutes. Ricardo Brizido, CPTO and Co-Founder of Stake, emphasized the importance of speed and reliability: “With Pay to Card, we’re eliminating unnecessary delays and putting returns in our investors’ hands almost instantly. This feature was built to directly solve one of the most common pain points in real estate investing, and it’s already driving strong results”.
The feature launch coincides with rapid growth in real-time finance across the Middle East. Checkout.com’s “State of Digital Commerce in MENA 2025” report highlights a 388% year-on-year surge in Account Funding Transactions (AFTs) in the UAE, reflecting strong demand for immediate payout solutions. The same study recorded a 176% increase in total processing volume from 2023 to 2024 and noted that daily online transactions have jumped 320% since 2020.
Since its 2021 debut, Stake has facilitated over AED 1 billion in property transactions, advancing its mission to democratize real estate investment in high-growth markets. By integrating Pay to Card, Stake reinforces its commitment to customer-centric innovation and operational transparency.
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Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, General Manager for MENA at Checkout.com, praised the collaboration: “Stake has always led with customer-first financial experiences. Together, we’re meeting the expectations of a region that is no longer just digital-first, but real-time-first. Pay to Card exemplifies how modern payment infrastructure can directly solve investor pain points”.
Pay to Card is now available to all Stake users in the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. By slashing withdrawal times from days to minutes, Stake and Checkout.com are setting a new standard for seamless, on-demand real estate investing.