As Saudi Arabia pushes towards a cashless economy, HyperPay wants to capitalise on the numerous opportunities that have presented itself due to the reforms and policies brought in by the Saudi government.

Abdullah Altamami told the media that, “We are already building infrastructure pieces in Saudi, which we believe is the most important market for us, considering how large it is.”

He added, “We will continue to build local infrastructure pieces and localise payment types and payment territories. We are the only ones who are able to provide or use American Express in Saudi Arabia, because AMEX in
Saudi Arabia is technically and legally designed for abroad.”

Currently, HyperPay has four offices in the region with headquarters in Saudi Arabia. The startup also has its presence in the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt. He also revealed that HyperPay also operates in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.

With regard to HyperPay’s expansion plans, Abdullah Altamami said that the Saudi fintech startup wants to particularly expand its business in Egypt as it is pushing to become a cashless economy as well. He also stressed that the startup plans to expand throughout the MENA region and provide local products for local consumers and businesses.

Earlier this year, HyperPay announced that it has entered into an agreement with STC pay, Saudi Telecom Company’s STC Pay Digital Mobile Wallet, to provide faster and more secure digital payment methods. According to reports, HyperPay is the only firm able to process payments for STC Pay.

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The expansion of the fintech sector is a priority for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman under Saudi Arabia’ s Vision 2030 strategy. According to a report in Arabian Business, the newly licenced Saudi Arabian fintech startup companies include HalalaH, Saudi Digital Payments, Geidea, Bayan Payments, Saudi Post, Tap Payments, and Brightware.

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) had licenced 7 fintech startup companies early this year. The 14 fintech startup companies licenced by Saudi Arabia brings the total of fintechs licenced this year to 21.

The Saudi Vision 2030 aims to make non-cash transactions 28 percent of the total transactions by next year. At this time non-cash transactions amount to just 5 percent of the total transactions.

The largest telecom operator in Saudi Arabia, STC had launched a digital wallet app STC Pay last year in October. STC Pay helps users pay restaurants and stores through a digital wallet that stores money digitally. It had gained 200,000 users by February this year.

HalalaH, the app licenced this week, will compete with STC Pay for customers. International players like Apple Pay are also operating in the Saudi Arabian market.

Saudi Arabia launched the Fintech Saudi initiative last year to improve financial inclusion and to encourage more citizens to use digital payments for transactions. Saudi Arabia also seeks to promote itself as a fintech hub with the Fintech Saudi initiative.

Saudi Arabia also appointed Deloitte as its consultant for the Fintech Saudi initiative. In February 2019, SAMA launched its regulatory sandbox environment to help local and international firms test fintech solutions that they want to launch in the Saudi Arabian market.

In addition to SAMA, Saudi Arabia’ s Capital Markets Authority is also committed to fostering fintech innovation by simplifying the regulatory framework for fintech startups.

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