The acquisition of a key buy-now-pay-later player accelerated deal making in the Middle East in the second week of June. UAE-based buy now pay later startup Spotti was acquired by Banking as a service provider Nymcard, while Oman-headquartered data analytics platform Byanat bagged seed funding from multiple investors.
Nymcard/Spotti Payments infrastructure provider Nymcard acquired buy now pay later (BNPL) startup Spotti to expand its product offering in the region.
The acquisition will allow NymCard to serve both B2C and B2B markets seamlessly, enabling instant installment options. Founded in 2018 by Omar Onsi, Nymcard is a UAE-based card issuing platform that enables financial institutions to build virtual and plastic card programs for their customers.
Meanwhile, Dubai-headquartered Spotti, which was founded in 2020 by Anuscha Iqbal and Ziyaad Ahmed was acquired by Australian fintech player Zip in 2021 for $16.3mn. Spotti enables merchants to offer interest-free buy now pay later payment options to their customers during online checkout and also for in-store purchases.
Banking as a service (BaaS) provider, NymCard had last year raised $22.5 million in a round led by DisruptAD, Reciprocal Ventures, and Shorooq Partners with participation from Chimera, DFDF, and Endeavor Catalyst, among others. It took Nymcard’s total Funding to over $35 million. Byanat Oman-based software as a service data analytics platform Byanat raised seed funding of an undisclosed sum to accelerate expansion into the Saudi Arabia market.
Funding was raised from 500 Global, Sanabil Investments, Omantel, Al Jabr MENA, and other angel investors in the region.
Founded in 2022 by Ahmed Albadi and Ahmed Alghadani, Byanat is a SaaS analytics platform, which offers connectivity management, device management, and analytics specifically designed for connected infrastructure.
