• Nearpay secures $14M in Series A funding, led by Sanabil Investments, with participation from stc Corporate Investment Fund, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures and Arzan Ventures.
• Nearpay's payment infrastructure as a service allows acquiring banks, payment service providers and fintech startups to launch card present payments quickly, securely and integrate their own systems.
• The $14 million Series A funding positions Nearpay to accelerate its mission, driving leadership in fintech by transforming how businesses handle payments.

‍Nearpay, the cutting-edge Saudi fintech startup specializing in payments infrastructure as a service, announced today the successful closure of a $14 million Series A funding round led by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company by the Public Investment Fund (“PIF”). This investment round, which includes stc’s Corporate Investment Fund (CIF), Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures and Arzan Ventures, marks a pivotal moment for Nearpay as it continues to redefine the landscape of payments.

Founded in 2020 by Mohamed Aleban and Hamza AlFarhan, Nearpay has swiftly emerged as a pioneer in the fintech sector, offering businesses a revolutionary payments infrastructure with a focus on POS and SoftPOS technology. Nearpay, a pioneer in Tap on Phone/SoftPos technology in the MENA region, has developed its infrastructure from ground up. This innovative solution simplifies accepting payments on any device including phones, tablets, kiosks and handheld devices easier than ever, offering a seamless and secure experience for both merchants and consumers.

The Series A funding round will empower Nearpay to accelerate its mission of transforming how businesses handle payments. The $14 million funding round will be instrumental in supporting the company’s global expansion plans, advancing technological capabilities, and solidifying Nearpay's commitment to driving excellence in payments infrastructure with a focus on card present payments.

The Series A funding round will empower Nearpay to accelerate its mission of transforming how businesses handle payments. The $14 million funding round will be instrumental in supporting the company’s global expansion plans, advancing technological capabilities, and solidifying Nearpay's commitment to driving excellence in payments infrastructure with a focus on card present payments.

Sanabil Investments spokesperson commented,” We are excited to back NearPay in its journey to enable seamless POS transactions and boost local and regional digital payment evolution. NearPay successfully emerged as a preferred provider for SoftPOS solutions, solving key pain points for its partners and business users. We look forward to supporting the company realize its full potential through its next phase of growth”.

Nearpay's SoftPOS transforms every device with NFC(near field communication) into a secure payment terminal, eliminating the need for extra hardware. This not only streamlines payments but also slashes costs for businesses, presenting an irresistible solution across diverse industries.

As Nearpay continues to disrupt the fintech space, the Series A funding round reinforces the company's position as a key player in shaping the future of payments.

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For media inquiries or further information, please contact:

Abdulaziz AlShammari

A.alshammari@nearpay.io

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About Nearpay:

Nearpay, founded in 2020 by Mohamed Aleban and Hamzah Alghamdi, is a Saudi-based fintech startup specializing in payment infrastructure as a service. The company's innovative Tap on Phone/SoftPOS technology simplifies touchless payments, offering businesses a secure and seamless solution for accepting transactions. For more information, please visit www.nearpay.io

About Sanabil: 

Sanabil is a financial investment company, wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), that commits more than USD 3 billion in capital per annum into global private investments that include VC/Growth. Sanabil is a dynamic, nimble, and highly experienced team of investment professionals. Sanabil provides partners with patient capital, the ability to invest across multiple funding rounds, and access to the region. At Sanabil, we invest in great ideas, great minds, and great companies.

About CIF by stc:

In 2023, the stc Institutional Investment Fund “CIF” was established to invest in startups across nine advanced technology domains, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital gaming, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and other promising fields. The fund focuses on identifying and investing in startups in their initial stages, particularly technical innovation and feasibility.

Source : Thestartupscene

NearPay, a Saudi-based fintech startup, has raised $3.6 million in pre-Series A funding round led by Vision Ventures, with participation by Hala Ventures, Arzan VC, Palm Ventures, and prominent angel investors.  Founded in 2020 by Mohammed Alaiban and Hamzah Alghamdi, NearPay partners with merchants, payment providers and startups to enable easy mobile-based soft point of sale services.

“The field of payments infrastructure is one of the most promising areas in the upcoming years,” Mohammad Alaiban, Co-Founder and CEO of NearPay, tells StartupScene. “What differentiates this field specifically is the ability to innovate in tailoring payment solutions that suit the local and regional markets without having to depend on ready-made technologies from abroad. This in turn localizes technologies which are in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.”

According to the startup, market demand for “softPOS” solutions is growing rapidly. Contactless payments adoption in Saudi Arabia grew from 4% in 2017 to 94% by the end of 2020, according to a finding by a Visa study, which was done in collaboration with Saudi Payments.

The new funding will be used to enhance the startup’s offering and expand the team to cope with increased demand.

Saudi Arabia’s venture capital funding increased three folds so far this year. In the first half of 2022, funding surged to $584 million, surpassing the total for the whole of 2021, according to data platform Magnitt. Some of the lion’s share of funding went to FOODICS raising $170 million in Series C funding; Tamara raising $100 million in Series B round; and HyperPay raising $36.7 million in its latest round of funding.

Source : wamda

Saudi Arabia-based financial technology (fintech) startup NearPay, has raised a $600,000 (SAR 2.2 million) pre-seed round, led by Saudi angel investor Musaab Hakami alongside other angel investors.

Founded in early 2020, NearPay offers an NFC technology-enabled point-of-sale (POS) software solution for small businesses, enabling merchants to accept customer payments directly on their phones. NFC technology constitutes 79 per cent of POS payments in the Kingdom, according to the latest reports issued by the Saudi Payments Company.

“The Saudi market has a great opportunity to enter and expand into the field of financial technologies, and by doing so, this will help in achieving our goals in the coming year," said Muhammad Al-Aiban, CEO of NearPay.

The startup recently obtained the Visa Tap on Phone certification.

Source : Wamda

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• ‍Saudi Arabia-based fintech NearPay, has raised SAR8 million ($2.1 million) pre-Seed investment from a group of angel investors.

• Founded by Mohammed Al-Aiban and Hamza AlFarhan in early 2020, NearPay provides small merchants access to NFC-enabled contactless payment solutions. NFC technology constitutes 79 per cent of point of sale (POS) payments in the Kingdom, according to the latest reports issued by the Saudi Payments Company.
• The startup plans to use the fresh funds to accelerate the launch of its softPOS product, which enables traders to accept payments from their customers directly on their phones.
• Earlier this year, NearPay raised a $600,000 (SAR2.2 million) in a pre-Seed round, led by Saudi angel investor Musaab Hakami alongside other angel investors.

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Press release

NearPay, a financial payments and technology company, announced the closure of its seed investment tour worth 8 million SAR through angel investors.

The company started operating in 2020 and was founded by Mohammed Al-Aiban and Hamza AlFarhan and this is the second investment for NearPay in just five months after the company announced in January 2021 that it has received an investment of 2.2 million riyals in the pre-seed phase and the company focuses on building new payment systems to enable payments companies, banks and financial technology companies to operate the latest technologies in the global markets.

Through this investment, the company aims to launch its first softPOS product in 2021, a solution that helps traders collect payments from mobile customers directly through contactless payment, which is witnessing significant growth in Saudi Arabia and accounts for 79% of the payment to points of sale according to the latest reports issued by Saudi Payments Company, and also focuses through this investment to attract more competencies in the coming period.

Founder and CEO Mohammed Al-Aiban commented: The Kingdom's Vision 2030, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and its interest in the financial technologies aspect, as well as the support of the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia and Saudi Payments Company, has greatly helped the emergence of Saudi projects in the financial technology sector and we are seeking over the next 5 years to gain a significant market share in this sector.

Source : Appluslaboratories

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NearPay (Tabaod Communications and Information Technology LLC) is a recently-created fintech company based in Saudi Arabia, providing payment acceptance solutions targeting micro-merchant transactions, and providing flexibility to mobile merchants.

In 2020, NearPay developed its first softPOS solution and decided to certify their product with Visa, to ensure that it accepts payments using the Visa network.

SoftPOS are software-based solutions that convert a regular smartphone into a contactless card reader. The simplicity, flexibility and affordability of softPOS makes it a convenient solution for managing micropayments. Companies such as small shops or delivery companies can easily adopt this as an alternative to hardware-based terminals.

Challenge

As a start-up developing its first mobile payment solution, NearPay did not have experience in Visa Certification Programs, and they needed a laboratory with expertise in Visa specs to support them throughout the certification project.

Solution

NearPay placed their trust in Applus+, a Visa-accredited lab with ample experience in certifying acceptance devices, to test their softPOS solution. In recognition of the quality of our services, we have received Visa’s award for ‘Best Performance for Testing Services of Chip Acceptance Device Products’ for the last three years.

NearPay decided to certify its softPOS under the new Visa Ready Tap to Phone Kernel Specification (VRTPKS), which was launched by Visa in August 2020. Before that, Visa had been certifying Tap to Phone solutions with Visa Contactless Payment Specification (VCPS) for hardware-based POS. This certification option expired in November 2020, when VRTPKS became mandatory for SoftPOS.

In December 2020, NearPay softPOS successfully obtained the Visa certification, becoming one of the first certified tap to phone solutions under VRTPKS. Applus+ Laboratories’ advice, support and continuous communication were key factors in facilitating the certification process.

“We would like to thank Applus+ Laboratories for being so helpful in our first Visa certification project and we are fortunate to have worked with them, and hopefully we will continue this collaboration in the future” highlighted Mohammad Aleban, NearPay CEO.

For more information contact us.

Source : jawlah

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NearPay, a developer of point-of-sale systems and payment solutions, has announced the signing of a partnership with Digital Pay, a payment services provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the aim of expanding its range of payment solutions.

NearPay was founded in late 2020 as a financial technology company specializing in payments and point of sale solutions, and closed two investment rounds this year; The first was in January 2021 with a value of 2.2 million Saudi riyals, and the second in May 2021 with a value of 8 million Saudi riyals. These investments contributed to the launch of the company’s first point of sale system, softPOS, this year.

The company says that it has obtained the PCI DSS certificate, which means its adherence to international standards in dealing with users' financial data, after examining all the company's security practices to ensure that the best efforts are taken to protect data from misuse or violations. This is after obtaining Visa Pure Kernel and VRTPKS certifications for SoftPOS Point of Sale System.

On this occasion, Abdulwahab Al-Ahmari, CEO of Digital Pay, commented: “We are excited to partner with the NearPay team, and including their technologies within our suite of payment solutions will help us improve our offering to existing customers, and tap into new markets that require flexible payment solutions that It is in great demand all over the Kingdom.”

Muhammad Al-Aiban, co-founder and CEO of NearPay, updated, saying: “According to data shared by (Mada) and (Visa) earlier this year, contactless payments reached 94% of all point-of-sale payments in the Kingdom.” Saudi Arabia, the highest rate in the world. However, there are still very few developers of these technologies in the market.

Al-Aiban continued, “At Nearpay we aim to translate this growth in digital payments from retail outlets to every payment operation across the economy, from logistics service providers to entertainment venues. We are building local and Kingdom-specific technology as part of our commitment to empowering local talent and innovation in line with the goals of Vision 2030.”

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