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Growth in the fintech sector of the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan (MENAP) has been robust in recent years, with investor backing increasing by approximately 36% annually from 2017 to 2022 according to a recent McKinsey study. While 2022 has been challenging, many local fintech startups continue to broaden their footprint across the region and beyond.
In addition to payments acceptance and lending for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), fintechs in MENAP offer a range of B2B services, including employee benefits solutions (e.g., Bayzat in the United Arab Emirates, PayNas in Egypt); payroll, invoice factoring, and earned wage advances (e.g., Abhi in Pakistan); and microlending and airtime credit solutions (e.g., UAE-based Optasia, formerly Channel VAS). Open-banking start-ups such as Lean Technologies (Saudi Arabia) and Tarabut Gateway (United Arab Emirates) provide seamless integration of bank, fintech, and merchant systems with APIs supporting permissioned data sharing on behalf of customers.
