Forbes Middle East Unveils The Region’s Top Fintech Companies 2023

Press release

Published April 11th, 2023 - 09:22 GMT

Forbes Middle East Unveils The Region’s Top Fintech Companies 2023

Meet The Leading Tech-Enablers In Financial Services

Forbes Middle East has revealed its ranking of the 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.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia comprise over 46% of the list, with eight and six entries, respectively. Bahrain, Iraq, and Morocco all recorded one entry each.

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.

Top 30 Fintech Companies In The Middle East 2023: Country Breakdown
Egypt	8	Bahrain	1
Saudi Arabia	6	Iraq	1
U.A.E.	5	Morocco	1
Kuwait	5	UAE / Saudi	1
Jordan	2

Click here for the complete list of the Top 30 Fintech Companies In The Middle East 2023.

Top 5 Fintech Companies In The Middle East 2023

1 | Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payments

E-payment platform

HQ: Egypt

Founders: Ashraf Sabry, Seif Coutry, Medhat Khalil, Magda Habib, Amjad Sabry

2 | MadfooatCom for ePayments Company

Bill presentment and payment system

HQ: Jordan

Founder: Nasser Saleh

3 | Optasia

Financial services provider for mobile operators and financial institutions

HQ: U.A.E.

Founder: Bassim Haidar

4 | MNT-Halan

Lending, BNPL and payments platform

HQ: Egypt

Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen

5 | Tabby

Shopping and financial services app

HQ: U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia

Founders: Hosam Arab, Daniil Barkalov

Background Information

Forbes Middle East

Forbes Middle East has a license for copy rights and distribution rights in the MENA region from Forbes Media, U.S.A. Under the guidelines standardized amongst all Forbes titles, the magazine features analysis and expert reporting related to the finance and business world, as well as investment opportunities in the Arab region. Forbes Middle East puts together its lists based on the criterion of neutrality, authenticity, commitment to the methodology of scientific research, and the quality of standards set globally by Forbes through its extensive experience in this field.

Forbes Middle East also serves as a guide for businessmen and decision makers by providing them with information and statistics necessary for making the right decisions. Thus, the magazine becomes the guiding compass for investments in the region. Through its wide network of press correspondents the magazine also works toward covering all the economic fields and issues concerning the Arab region.