Hala acquires UAE fintech Paymennt.com
Hala acquires UAE fintech Paymennt.com
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- Saudi Arabia-based fintech Hala has acquired UAE-based fintech Paymennt.com, formerly PointCheckout, for an undisclosed sum.
- Founded in 2016 by Esam Alnahdi and Maher Loubieh, Hala provides financial tools to entrepreneurs and SMEs to start, run and grow their businesses. While Paymennt.com, established in 2017 by Bashar Saleh and Tarek Ghobar, offers SMEs a platform to support their offline-to-online journey along with an integrated online payment solution.
- This acquisition will allow Hala to further enhance its product offering by including online payments, allowing its SME customers to increase their online presence and process omnichannel payments both offline and online.
- This is the second acquisition for Hala since its inception, the first of which was the acquisition of Saudi startup Fresh in 2021.
Press release:
The fast-growing Saudi Arabia-based regional fintech, Hala, today announced that it has acquired, through its holding company, the United Arab Emirates Paymennt.com during the second edition of the largest global technology event – LEAP 2023.
Paymennt.com, formerly called PointCheckout established in 2017 and co-founded by Bashar Saleh and Tarek Ghobar, is a payment service provider, regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Markets RegLab, and with offices across the UAE and Jordan. Paymennt.com serves more than 2,000 micro and small businesses by offering them a platform to support their offline-to-online journey along with an integrated online payment solution and has managed to grow over 250 percent in payment processing year-on-year.
This acquisition will allow Hala to further enhance its product offering by including online payments, allowing its SME customers to increase their online presence and process omnichannel payments both offline and online.
Hala had made progressive leaps within the fintech industry ever since it started operations in 2018, with a clear focus on serving SMEs. The company experienced significant growth in 2022 by doubling its customer base and revenue year over year.
It is worth noting that this is the second acquisition for Hala since its inception, the first of which was the acquisition of the Saudi startup “Fresh” in 2021, which is now called Hala cashier and which today enables Hala to integrate non- financial added value services to its SME customers, a key pillar of Hala’s strategy aimed at building a one-stop shop for SMEs.
Speaking at the second edition of LEAP – The Largest Global Technology Event, Maher Loubieh, co-founder, Hala, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Paymennt team to our family to join us in executing our joint vision. The trigger was simple, we met smart entrepreneurs who share a similar vision and who are building a complementary product that clearly fits into our strategy. With more to come, this is our first endeavor outside our home country and is the first block towards execute our global vision We believe that integrating Paymennt.com’s offering with that of Hala will add great value to our customers in Saudi and UAE.
Describing the acquisition as a major step forward for SME payments, Bashar Saleh, Co-Founder and CEO, Paymennt.com, said: “It is a privilege to become a key player in the region’s fintech ecosystem, one that shares our commitment and passion. to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. We are very proud of what our team has achieved to date, having gained the trust of our merchants to process their payments. Now, as part of the Hala family, we can better serve our customers and grow across the Middle East and beyond.”
