The UAE’s fintech story has largely been one of speed, convenience and digital adoption. For Botim, however, the bigger opportunity lies in access.
What began as a communications app has evolved into a financial ecosystem spanning payments, remittances, credit and other services, with financial inclusion increasingly at the centre of its strategy. It is a shift shaped by the realities of the UAE, a highly diverse market where not everyone arrives with a bank account, credit history or easy access to traditional financial services. More than 200 nationalities call the country home. Many came to work, build lives and send money back to families abroad, often without the formal financial credentials traditional banking requires.
Today, Botim says it serves 8.5 million people in the UAE and more than 160 million globally. In this interview, Dr Tariq Bin Hendi, CEO of Botim and CEO and board member of Astra Tech, discusses Botim ‘s push into financial services, its focus on underserved consumers, the role of AI and partnerships in its expansion, and what comes next for fintech in the UAE.
The UAE is home to more than 200 nationalities, many of them expats who arrived without a local credit history or banking relationship. How does that unusually diverse, high-turnover population change the problems fintechs are here to solve, and how has it shaped the way you’ve built Botim?
I think we’re fortunate to live at the epicentre of what many people view as the next wave of growth and opportunity. At Botim, we’ve grown alongside the UAE’s population. Historically, many people came here for relatively short periods of time. That has changed significantly. People now move, start families, and stay for much longer.
The UAE has evolved into a place people can call home through different stages of their lives. While we’re widely recognised for our role in keeping people connected through our communications features, what many people are discovering is that we’ve established a comprehensive financial ecosystem to support consumers and businesses, and we now operate as one of the largest fintech players in the region.
We’ve intentionally focused on the blue-collar segment because these individuals were often unbanked or underbanked and unable to fully participate in the economy they were helping to build. Today, Botim serves more than 80 per cent of the UAE population. More than 8.5 million people use Botim as their primary means of communicating with loved ones, spending an average of 20 to 25 minutes a day on the platform.
Among the KYC-ed fintech users on the app, more than 60 per cent engage with three or more financial services each month, demonstrating the depth of participation across our ecosystem. That creates a unique opportunity for us to navigate growth responsibly at population scale.
To understand our user needs and build products that help them grow, succeed, and achieve their goals. Globally, more than 160 million people use Botim, reflecting the connections people maintain with family and friends around the world.
Our core objective is financial inclusion. We want everyone to be able to participate in the economy. While the UAE is incredibly diverse, people’s basic needs are very similar. Regardless of nationality, background, or income level, everyone deserves the same opportunity. That’s what our user demographics tell us we’re responsible for, where Botim can make a difference, and what we’re continuing to build upon.
Botim recently launched the UAE’s first One Credential Card with Mastercard, allowing users to combine debit, credit, and instalments into a single card. What was the thinking behind the product, and why does a market this diverse respond to that kind of flexibility?
The key word is simplicity. It’s not simplicity for a specific nationality or demographic. It’s simplicity for everyone who uses our platform.
People are inundated with information and choices every day. The easier we can make things for consumers, the better. The One Credential Card gives people flexibility. They can decide whether to spend from their account balance or use credit to continue building their credit history.
What’s important is that all of these options are available through a single device and a single card. Whether someone chooses to carry a physical card or manage everything digitally, they have complete control through the app. We think it’s a powerful innovation, but it’s also a strong statement about our capabilities in financial services. Partnering with Mastercard, a global leader in payments, is something we’re very proud of.
While it’s the first launch of its kind in the wider region, we’re less concerned about being first and more concerned about doing it right. If we can provide flexibility, choice, and independence for consumers, then we’ve achieved something meaningful.
Botim has consolidated its fintech offerings under one umbrella. What’s the strategy behind bringing everything into a single ecosystem, and what does that unlock for users that separate apps cannot?
We serve people from a wide range of backgrounds and education levels. Some users may not be able to read or write, but they know what they’re trying to accomplish and how to communicate that. It’s our responsibility to provide products that are recognisable, easy to use, and reliable. A single platform under a household brand allows users to access multiple services from a place they already know and trust. That’s incredibly important.
As our business evolved and we secured licenses and built strong relationships with regulators, our understanding of what consumers truly want also evolved. We’ve become better at recognising how consumers want to grow and how we can support them through our platform.
One thing I want to emphasise is how seriously we take customer feedback. Whether feedback is positive or critical, brief or detailed, it is immensely valuable to us. Our users are our most important stakeholders. If we do right by them, our business will thrive. That’s how we think about growth and innovation.
Partnerships clearly sit at the heart of your model: Mastercard on cards, the wider Astra Tech and G42 ties on AI. How do you decide who to build with versus what to build in-house, and what makes a fintech partnership actually work in this region?
For us, the starting point is always the user. We build where we know we can create value through our platform, distribution and understanding of our users, and we partner where trusted infrastructure, networks or specialist capability can accelerate the outcome.
Mastercard illustrates that model: global payment infrastructure and expertise combined with Botim’s reach and customer insight enabled us to become an early mover with One Credential and bring a new payment model to UAE consumers.
Another good example is cross-border transactions. Many of our customers live and work in the UAE, but their financial lives extend far beyond it. Through partnerships, we’re able to support customers before they even arrive in the UAE, providing financial education, onboarding and financial readiness services earlier in the migration journey. We look at how we can support someone’s entire financial journey, rather than treating remittance as an isolated transaction that ends when money crosses a border.
Being part of the G42 ecosystem similarly gives us access to technology and AI capabilities that can be applied to financial services at a significant scale. The value comes from translating that infrastructure into better customer outcomes.
Botim is building toward being AI-native, not just AI-enabled. Where is AI already changing the day-to-day experience for users, and where do you think the industry still overpromises?
AI is a fascinating space right now because many people talk about the technology itself but not enough about the solutions they’re trying to deliver.
For us, AI should improve the customer experience without the customer necessarily noticing it. Over the last year, I’ve seen many companies raising money around AI-driven solutions, but they’re not always clear about the specific problem they’re solving.
Our approach is different. Any use of AI should improve service quality, enhance products, save users time, and reduce complexity. We’re living in an overstimulated world. If we can reduce the time it takes a user to solve a problem from a minute to a few seconds, we’ve added real value. If an issue can be resolved instantly through AI, that should happen seamlessly.
Finding the balance between technology and human engagement is important. Technology alone isn’t enough. If you’re not solving a meaningful customer problem, you’re simply creating something impressive that nobody uses. Utility matters more than novelty. The more customers use our platform, the more we learn from them and make improvements for the millions of users on Botim.
Remittances are one of the clearest expressions of the UAE’s demographics, with billions flowing abroad each year. Where do you still see the biggest gaps in cross-border payments, and how is Botim approaching them?
Many people move to the UAE specifically to support their families back home. That reality isn’t going to change. What we can change is how easy, affordable, and efficient it is for people to send money home. We can digitise the process, lower costs, save time, and improve the user experience.
That’s a major reason why we’ve seen significant growth in remittance volumes, and today, we’re among the top three digital remittance platforms in the UAE. Beyond remittances, we also ask: how can we help people invest? How can we help them understand their spending habits and make better financial decisions?
The largest remittance corridors are well known, including India, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Egypt. Once you understand why people are sending money home, whether it’s for education, household support, or other needs, you can design products that genuinely help them.
Many workers don’t have access to formal credit histories, either here or in their home countries. We believe we can help them build their credit profile while continuing to support their families. Leaving home, family, and community to work abroad is a tremendous sacrifice. It’s our responsibility, and the responsibility of the broader ecosystem, to help these individuals improve their lives.
At Botim, financial inclusion, financial literacy, and creating better opportunities remain central to everything we do.
Looking three to five years ahead, how do you expect the UAE’s demographics and regulatory environment to shape the next phase of fintech? What will separate the platforms that endure from those that don’t?
I’ve been asked this question for years, including back in 2018 and 2019 when the UAE was accelerating its fintech ambitions. One thing became very clear during and after Covid-19: the UAE demonstrated consistency, reliability, and a strong commitment to people. At both the federal and local levels, we prioritised the human element in everything we did, from healthcare to food security and beyond.
As a result, people felt safe and confident in the UAE. What has happened since then is remarkable. I wouldn’t have predicted the scale of population growth we’ve seen in the years following Covid. Today, people increasingly see the UAE not as a short-term opportunity, but as a place where they can build a long-term future.
I believe the population will continue to grow and diversify. People from every corner of the world are choosing to make the UAE their home. We are, fundamentally, a country built by people from around the world.
What makes the UAE distinctive is the simplicity and efficiency of everyday life. From airport procedures to setting up utilities, many experiences that are complicated elsewhere are straightforward here. The same trend applies to financial services. Globally, consumer expectations continue to rise. People expect more convenience, transparency, and value from financial institutions.
At the same time, digital adoption continues to accelerate. The younger generation has very different expectations from previous generations. Most people no longer want to visit a bank branch. They expect everything to be available digitally.
The UAE is also one of the most competitive markets in the world, with international brands operating across almost every sector. The competition is healthy; it keeps homegrown companies like Botim continuing to innovate. At the same time, strong regulation remains critical: every company serving consumers here should operate from the same baseline of compliance, transparency, and consumer protection.
Ultimately, the platforms that endure will be the ones that deliver consistent value through trusted, reliable service. It may not always be exciting, but reliability matters. We welcome competition. The UAE will continue to challenge companies to raise standards, and it remains a place where people can dream, build, and succeed, provided they do it the right way.
