Dubai - Astra Tech, the leading consumer technology holding group in the MENA region, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. The MoU will leverage Alibaba Cloud's Enterprise Mobile Application Studio (EMAS) mobile testing solution into Botim, which is underway to become an ultra-app, to enhance the user’s experience through unparalleled app performance, reliability, and seamless functionality.

The agreement was established through a signing ceremony at Botim’s headquarters in Dubai between Abdallah Abu-Sheikh, Founder of Astra Tech and CEO of Botim, and Daniel Jiang, General Manager of Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, in the presence of senior representatives from both parties.

The EMAS solution is set to enhance the quality of VoIP calls and video by offering support across a wide array of popular device models and providing a 24/7 service to assist users in identifying hidden risks within apps. These risks encompass a range of potential issues, including app crashes, compatibility hiccups, functionality glitches, and performance concerns. By addressing these challenges, EMAS aims to elevate app quality and market competitiveness while mitigating disturbances for users. This becomes particularly pertinent as Botim accelerates its transformation into an ultra-app, offering a diverse suite of services beyond VoIP. This comprehensive testing and security approach will facilitate the seamless integration of an extended range of services and functions such as mini-apps development, supporting objectives of streamlined connectivity, economic growth, and financial inclusion.

The partnership builds on an existing collaboration between both entities where Botim has leveraged Alibaba Cloud’s products and services including Elastic Compute Service (ECS), storage, networking, and database services. This addition is set to elevate Botim's upgrade testing process by seamlessly conducting weekly application upgrades across the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Abdallah Abu-Sheikh commented: “Our partnership with Alibaba Cloud is bound to enhance user activity and foster customer loyalty. Partners will gain easy access to a comprehensive range of services on a unified platform, offering an engaging experience through a streamlined customer journey. As we align technology with empowerment, this strategic move will unlock a new era of performance, reliability, and user satisfaction. We are dedicated to creating a world where technology becomes an effortless enabler, enhancing the way we live, work, and connect.”

Commenting on the partnership, Daniel Jiang said: “Through our EMAS Mobile Testing, we aim to offer an application quality enhancement and management platform that is intuitive, detects issues, reduces user churn and improves app quality as well as market competitiveness for Botim. We are already reaping great results of EMAS Mobile Testing across the markets it has been deployed in.”

Botim and Alibaba Cloud will work together to enhance user experience, accelerate deployment through robust testing capabilities, streamline app development, and reduce time-to-market for new features and updates.

About AstraTech:

Astra Tech (‘Astra’) is the MENA region's leading consumer technology holding group, established in 2022. In the same year, Astra made strategic acquisitions of prominent platforms including UAE Central Bank-licensed fintech platform PayBy, on-demand home services platform Rizek, and MENA's leading communications platform, Botim. In 2023, Astra seamlessly integrated Rizek and PayBy into Botim, creating the world's first Ultra app. This groundbreaking app offers users seamless home, e-commerce, and fintech services that outpace competitors by three times in terms of speed. Astra Tech's innovative approach revolutionizes the connection between consumers and businesses, elevating the digital experience across the MENA region and beyond.

About Alibaba Cloud: 

Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, big data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services. Alibaba maintained its position as the third leading public cloud IaaS service provider globally since 2018, according to IDC. Alibaba is the world’s third leading and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner.