- The acquisition of PayBy, one of the largest players in the digital payments and fintech space, follows the recent acquisition of Rizek, a platform for on-demand personal and home services
- PayBy will complement Rizek and other upcoming acquisitions to allow Astra Tech to realize its “ultra-platform” ambition
Dubai: PayBy — one of the UAE’s largest and most innovative fintech companies, has been acquired by Astra Tech(‘Astra’), a UAE-born technology development and investment group. This acquisition follows the company’s recent acquisition of Rizek, a platform for on-demand personal and home services. The PayBy acquisition, which is currently raising US$500 million in investment, signals a major strategic move for Astra towards its ambition to create an “ultra-platform” – a revolutionary, interconnected digital ecosystem expected to solve the growing problem of super app fatigue.
Led by Astra’s founder and CEO, serial entrepreneur Abdallah Abu Sheikh, PayBy’s acquisition brings sophisticated proprietary payment technologies and financial services to Astra’s ultra platform to enable a seamless and cashless payment solution for consumers, merchants and businesses. PayBy has grown considerably in the last 2 years with more than 2 million users and thousands of active sellers. As of May 2022, over AED 600 million worth of transactions were executed.
Commenting on the acquisition, Abu Sheikh said: “PayBy has been instrumental in pioneering financial inclusion in the UAE and is considered a key player in the cashless ecosystem. As we integrate PayBy’s technologies, solutions and team into Astra’s ultra platform, our speed and ability to supercharge our services with industry-leading payment and money transfer solutions accelerated tremendously.”
Astra plans to acquire, repurpose and bring together already established and industry leading platforms to create an ultra platform to revolutionize how people live their lives by helping them save significant time when completing essential everyday tasks including payments, transfers and transactions. In addition, Astra’s platform aims to deliver better value to the providers and partners of personal and home services by removing the burden of unfavorable commission structures.
Abdallah Abu Sheikh added: “With this acquisition, we are closer than ever to realizing our vision and are excited to have the PayBy team with us. The integration of PayBy’s products with Astra’s ultra platform will allow us to synthesize and grow the ecosystem in a furious speed. It will also help deliver a compelling user experience and a sustainable commission structure for our merchants and businesses, something many super apps today struggle with.”
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About Astra Tech
Astra Tech (‘Astra’) is a UAE-based technology investment and development group formed by Abdallah Abu Sheikh, a pioneering serial entrepreneur in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) technology startup ecosystem.
Under Abu Sheikh’s leadership, the Astra Group is taking steps to become one of the largest consumer technology groups from the region by building the world’s first ultra platform and ecosystem. The platform will provide seamless connectivity between consumers and businesses, allowing users to easily access services related to the home, e-commerce and fintech in one place, three times faster than through competing platforms. Astra’s mission is to enrich people’s lives by making communication and e-commerce more seamless, connected and natural than ever before.
Through its $500 million (AED 1.8 billion) raised, the Astra Group will make strategic acquisitions to increase speed to market with user-rich, financially viable and customer-centric assets that will soon be integrated into the ultra platform to further unlock its enormous potential. by Astra Tech for its users, partners and society at large.
