Mastercard and HyperPay Partner on Commercial Cards in Saudi Arabia

Mastercard and payment gateway provider HyperPay have partnered to issue commercial cards in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

The commercial cards will be launched in Saudi Arabia and later expanded to the UAE and Qatar, the companies said in a Wednesday (Sept. 17) press release.

The collaboration aims to serve small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), helping them streamline expense management, unlock greater efficiency in their financial operations, and deliver digital commercial experiences, according to the release.

Saud Swar, country manager for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and other Levant at Mastercard, said in the release that the region is building “thriving digital economies.”

“In Saudi Arabia, where 93% of [SMBs] are confident about the year ahead and 99% already accept digital payments, the timing could not be more pivotal,” Swar said.

HyperPay Founder and CEO Muhannad Ebwini said in the release that the two companies have been collaborating on the region’s digital transformation since 2022.

“Our latest collaboration marks another significant step forward in our collective journey towards regional growth, enabling merchants and enterprises to enhance business performance with a range of innovative payment solutions,” Ebwini said.

Mastercard led a 2022 funding round in which HyperPay raised $36.7 million to expand its payment services to merchants in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

When announcing that round, HyperPay said that Ebwini launched the company in 2014 and that it was offering payment processing services, invoicing, risk and fraud management, and other services to support small businesses.

The PYMNTS Intelligence and TerraPay collaboration “Global Money Movement: Saudi Arabia Edition” found that Saudi Arabia has prioritized digital innovation and financial inclusion under Saudi Vision 2030.

Government-backed initiatives, such as the rollout of faster payment systems and the promotion of FinTech startups, have fueled consumer readiness and enthusiasm for new payment technologies and made Saudi Arabia a potential blueprint for digital transformation across the Middle East and beyond, according to the report.

In some other partnerships in the region, Mastercard teamed up with UAE-based supply chain financing FinTech Fundbot in November, Arab regional payment system Buna in November, and Saudi financial services startup barq in September 2024.