NymCard acquires Middle East BNPL firm Spotii

UAE’s NymCard has acquired buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) Spotii, a deal that paves the way for the fintech firm to offer its financial services client base a fully customisable BNPL product tailored to their specific needs and local markets. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Spotii, a BNPL platform with operations in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, has more than one million registered customers and over 1,500 merchant partners.

“This acquisition combines Spotii’s leading technology, risk engine and market expertise with NymCard’s powerful banking as a service (BaaS) and card issuing platform, presenting prospective clients with a powerful solution to offer credit-on-demand products,” the fintech firm said in a statement.

NymCard said the integrated platform will serve both B2C and B2B markets seamlessly, enabling instant instalment options through its nine modules.

These modules encompass cutting-edge features such as eKYC, AI-driven OCR, machine learning-powered rules, cohort-based risk engine with intelligent risk assessment as well as a fully configurable loan management system and an AI-driven collections app.

“Spotii significantly expands the range of BaaS products and services available to NymCard clients, greatly reducing barriers to launching new innovative products,” Omar Onsi, CEO & founder of NymCard said, adding that the fintech firm will offer a comprehensive BNPL solution that can be tailored to meet the requirements of banks, financial institutions, retailers, fintech companies and end customers.

With enhanced payment solutions, a unified technology stack, augment data analytics capabilities and an expanded geographic reach, NymCard and Spotii can deliver a comprehensive suite of payment and financial solutions.

Founded in 2018, NymCard is regulated by the UAE central bank and is a principal member of bothVISA and Mastercard. The fintech firm supports businesses of all sizes to launch new payment products including prepaid cards, multi-currency offerings, charge and credit cards and BNPL solutions.

NymCard’s growth strategy

Meanwhile, Dubai’s Mashreq Bank acquired a stake in NymCard in February 2022 to support the fintech firm’s growth prospects amid a surge in digital payments in the UAE. NymCard raised $22.5m in a funding round that was led by venture capital firms DisruptAD, Reciprocal Ventures and Shorooq Partners in June 2022.

The company said it would use the proceeds from the latest fundraising round to strengthen its product development as well as expand its presence in current markets.

With a strong presence in the Middle East and North Africa, the BaaS provider allows fintech companies to plug and play ready finance into their applications through application programming interfaces rather than dealing with complex payment rails.

Read: Mastercard certifies NymCard as a principal issuer