About Sinder

By — CEO & Co-Founder, Sinder · Updated

Sinder is a UAE fintech, incorporated in the UAE, building a transparent travel-money product for UAE residents. Founded in 2024 in Dubai by Chris Hughes (CEO, ex-Revolut, ex-Tamara) and Artem Kuchumov (CTO, ex-Revolut).

Mission

Sinder exists to replace the FX charges UAE cards add to foreign spending — the other cards reviewed on our comparison pages publish FX fees in roughly the 1.84%–3.14% range (VAT and other charges can be additional) — with a clear, predictable cost the cardholder can verify against the public Mastercard Exchange Rate. We believe the true cost of spending abroad should be visible at the point of purchase — not hidden inside an exchange rate or buried in the fine print of a fee schedule.

That principle drives the product: 0% Sinder markup within an AED 40,000 / month worldwide allowance, no per-transaction surcharge, and — on the Founder plan — no annual fee, no monthly subscription and no minimum balance. When you do cross the allowance, only the excess carries a small, clearly stated rate.

What we're building

The first Sinder product is the Founder Card — a Mastercard Platinum Debit card issued in the UAE with airport lounge access, a virtual card on approval (subject to successful verification and issuer requirements), and UAE PASS digital onboarding. Alongside it, the Sinder app includes Where Can I Go?, a destination finder that shows UAE residents where they can travel right now based on visa effort, flight time, cost versus Dubai and more.

Founders

Sinder was founded in 2024 in Dubai by two operators who built cards and FX products at scale before starting the company.

  • Chris Hughes — CEO & Co-Founder. Former Head of Core Product at Tamara and Product Owner at Revolut, focused on cards and FX.
  • Artem Kuchumov — CTO & Co-Founder. Ex-Revolut engineer specialising in payments infrastructure, card issuing and machine-learning risk systems.

Where we operate

Sinder is incorporated in the UAE, headquartered at 31 Maktabik Business Centre, SONY Building, Al Raffa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and serves UAE residents. Sinder is not a bank. The Sinder card and account are provided by ruya, the regulated issuing bank and account provider. ruya holds customer funds in accordance with applicable law. Network International supports payment processing and Mastercard is the card scheme.