Forbes Middle East releases their annual list of Top Fintech Companies

Forbes Middle East releases their annual list of Top Fintech Companies

Forbes Middle East has revealed its ranking of the MENA region’s Top 30 Fintech Companies, highlighting the most innovative Middle East-based companies using the latest technology to digitize banking, finance, and investment.

The list was curated considering the amount of money executed through digital channels in 2022, the number of app downloads and active users, geographical presence, annual growth, innovation, impact, valuation, and funding from venture capitalists. Fintech operations owned by exchange houses, traditional banks, governments, and telecom firms were excluded.

While Egypt and Saudi Arabia dominated the list, the UAE is represented by 6 companies – Optasia, Tabby, Sarwa, Telr, Tarabut Gateway & YAP.

Rank FinTech Company Founded Headquarters Founders
1 Fawry 2008 Egypt Ashraf Sabry, Seif Coutry, Medhat Khalil, Magda Habib & Amjad Sabry
2 MadfooatCom 2011 Jordan Nasser Saleh
3 Optasia 2012 UAE Bassim Haidar
4 MNT-Halan 2018 Egypt Mounir Nakhla & Ahmed Mohsen
5 Tabby 2019 UAE & Saudi Arabia Hosam Arab & Daniil Barkalov
6 PayTabs Group 2014 Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Al Jouf
7 Tamara 2020 Saudi Arabia Abdulmajeed Alsukhan,Turki Bin Zarah & Abdulmohsen Albabtain
8 HyperPay 2014 Saudi Arabia Muhannad Ebwini
9 MyFatoorah 2016 Kuwait Abdullah Aldabbous
10 Rasan Information Technology 2016 Saudi Arabia Moayad Alfallaj, Suliman Alfallaj, Thamer Alfallaj &Ayman Alfallaj
11 EazyPay 2016 Bahrain Nayef Tawfiq Al Alawi
12 AMAN 2015 Egypt Mohamed Wahby & Hazem Moghazi
13 Paymob 2015 Egypt Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj & Mostafa Menessy
14 Iraq Wallet 2015 Iraq Yazen Altimimi
15 valU 2017 Egypt Walid Hassouna
16 Sarwa 2017 UAE Mark Chahwan, Nadine Mezher & Jad Sayegh
17 HPS 1995 Morocco Mohamed Horani, Abdeslam Alaoui Smaili, Samir Khallouqui & Driss Sabbahe
18 One Global 2004 Kuwait Mohammed AlRashidi & Hamad AlMogahwi
19 Hala 2018 Saudi Arabia Maher Loubieh & Esam Alnahdi
20 Telr 2014 UAE Khalil Alami
21 Ottu 2019 Kuwait Talal AlAwadhi
22 MoneyFellows 2017 Egypt Ahmed Wadi
23 Tarabut Gateway 2018 UAE Abdulla Almoayed
24 Lean Technologies 2019 Saudi Arabia Hisham Al-Falih, Aditya Sarkar & Ashu Gupta
25 PaySky 2017 Egypt Waleed Sadek
26 Thndr 2020 Egypt Ahmad Hammouda & Seif Amr
27 UPayments 2016 Kuwait Ali Al Habshi & Nasser Al Humaidi
28 Dinarak 2016 Jordan Imad Aloyoun, Bassem Farradj, Khaldoun Mohammad & Muntasir Homsi
29 VI Markets 2010 Kuwait Talal Al Ajmi
30 YAP 2021 UAE Marwan Hachem & Anas Zaidan

Payment firms dominate the ranking. Of the 30 companies, three are primarily buy-now-pay-later platforms: Tabby, Tamara, and valU. Tabby raised $58 million in a Series C funding round in January 2023, bringing its valuation to $660 million, while Saudi’s Tamara announced in March 2023 a debt facility of $150 million from Goldman Sachs, bringing its total funding in equity and debt to $366 million.

Egypt’s Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payments tops the 2023 ranking. The third-oldest company on the list, Fawry’s revenue grew by 37.5% in 2022 to $75 million. As of March 21, 2023, its market value was $542 million. Morocco-headquartered HPS, founded in 1995, stands as the longest-serving Fintech firm. It is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange with a market cap of $435 million as of March 22, 2023. Conversely, U.A.E.-based YAP is the youngest listee, established in 2021. The financial super app raised $45 million in funding and onboarded about 200,000 customers and over 10,000 SMEs.

Ranked fourth, Egypt’s MNT-Halan became the region’s latest unicorn in February 2023, after securing over $200 million from Chimera Abu Dhabi.