Geidea‘s payment solution expansion into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to be guided by its partnership with Magnati. The Saudi fintech is set to offer a suite of value-added services and payment solutions to UAE-based companies operating across the retail, F&B, wholesale, hospitality and healthcare sectors.
Launched in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in 2008, Geidea operates around 700,000 payment terminals (POS) across the region and with 139,000 trusted merchants including regional and international brands, SMEs and e-commerce players.
Geidea’s recent expansion into the UAE follows its launch into the Egyptian market in June 2021 and forms a part of its vision to make payments and commerce technology more accessible, affordable and intuitive.
As part of its expansion, Geidea has partnered with the payment solutions provider Magnati for acquiring, issuer processing and acquiring processing.
The partnership marks Geidea’s first major agreement in the UAE market and will see Geidea become a payment service provider (PSP) for Magnati, thereby facilitating digital payments acceptance.
Moving forward, the partnership will enable Magnati to expand its cross-border business into Geidia’s current territory while boosting e-commerce and m-commerce capabilities for Magnati’s clients.
Magnati’s tailored payment solutions will allow merchants to accept a wider variety of digital payments via a secure and single API integrated platform.
“In line with our vision to deliver strong value to our partnerships, we are proud to collaborate with Geidea, who will simplify payment acceptance through Magnati’s payment solutions,” said Ramana Kumar, CEO of Magnati.
“Magnati is changing the digital payments landscape by creating new experiences and shaping the future by offering payments as a platform, seamless integrations, and value adds. With Magnati’s reach and Geidea’s fintech experience, we will be able to synergise our capabilities and boost digital payments growth in UAE and GCC and North Africa.”
Discussing the partnership with Magnati, Sailesh Malhotra, general manager – GCC, Geidea, added: “We are proud to announce our partnership with Magnati, a prominent like-minded fintech, as we expand our presence into the UAE, one of the region’s most important markets.
“The collaboration will enable us to serve both the public and private sectors, with the same customer-focused approach that we’ve used to great success in Saudi Arabia. Ultimately, our clients are our success stories. We look forward to working with Magnati and continuing to build our presence across the UAE and the rest of the region.”
With 73 per cent of consumers in the UAE shopping online more frequently than they did before the pandemic, according to a 2020 Mastercard survey, having an online payments presence has become a huge focus for small businesses.
Geidea was the first non-banking institution to be granted an acquiring license in Saudi Arabia; something that will accelerate its expansion into markets across the Middle East.
Salim Awan, MD of institutional payments at Magnati, concluded with: “We are at a pivotal moment in the payment industry, when payments can no longer be an additional step in the e-commerce process but instead, must offer customers the highest levels of ease and convenience.
“Our partnership with Geidea is all about simplifying payments for users, and we will work together with Geidea to introduce new channels and technologies. Magnati is committed to accelerating innovation with our partners to unlock the possibilities of payments.”
