• Highly sought-after Stored Value and Retail Payment Services approvals granted by the UAE Central Bank will allow PayBy to power innovative and seamless fintech solutions for Astra Tech’s upcoming app.
  • Based in the UAE, Astra Tech acquired PayBy in August 2022, the homegrown fintech behemoth, to power its revolutionary Ultra-Platform’s fintech capabilities.
  • Customers will be able to send, request or receive money, transfer internationally and top up their wallets on the upcoming app.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: PayBy, a leading fintech innovator recently acquired by Astra Tech in August 2022, has been licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE to conduct Stored Value Facility (SVF) and Retail Payment Services (RPS) operations. The license represents one of the country's highest levels of financial services approvals, enabling Astra Tech’s PayBy to continue altering the fintech landscape with its payment solutions. Customers and merchants will experience ultra-fast and secure services, such as international money transfers, seamless payment solutions, wallet top-ups, and more on Astra Tech’s upcoming app to be launched in the coming months.

Founder and CEO of Astra Tech, Abdallah Abu Sheikh, commented: “We are honored to have secured the license from UAE’s Central Bank which marks a huge milestone achievement for both Astra Tech and PayBy. We’re excited to launch our secure payment solutions to customers and merchants in the UAE to enable smoother digital transactions and make everyday commerce friction-free. We have always aligned with the UAE’s vision of creating a cashless ecosystem and are thankful to the Central Bank for trusting us with our secure technology. Astra Tech will stay true to its mission of offering a more robust value proposition to customers and merchants by eliminating the burden of unfavorable & compounded commission structures that are usually passed on to suppliers, partners, and consumers by today’s super apps.”

Astra Tech is acquiring and equipping sector-leading customer-centric businesses with disruptive and progressive technologies that will enrich merchants’ and users’ lives with effortless usability and efficiency, a gap that currently remains unfulfilled in the UAE digital commerce space today.

Astra Tech is one of the biggest additions to the MEA’s ever-growing tech ecosystem aiming to raise 500 million USD (AED 1.8 Billion) from various strategic investors and partners, bringing the company one step closer to its vision of launching an app. PayBy is one of the largest fintech companies in the region, with over AED 600 million in transactions as of May 2022, and aims to build an all-in-one mobile payment ecosystem in the UAE and GCC, offering a safe and contactless payment solution. Astra Tech’s acquisition of PayBy follows the company’s recent acquisition of Rizek, a platform for on-demand personal and home services.

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About Astra Tech

Astra Tech (‘Astra’) is a UAE-based technology investment and development group formed by Abdallah Abu Sheikh, a pioneering serial entrepreneur in the Middle East and Africa’s (MEA) tech start-up ecosystem. Under Abu Sheikh’s leadership, the Astra Group is taking strides to become one of the largest consumer technology groups from the region by building the world’s first ultra platform and ecosystem. The platform will provide seamless connectivity between consumers and businesses, enabling users to effortlessly access home, e-commerce, and fintech services within one place, three times faster than through competing platforms. Astra’s mission is to enrich people’s lives by making communication and e-commerce more seamless, connected, and natural.

Astra is raising USD 500 million (AED 1.8 billion) and has acquired a fintech platform, PayBy, and an on-demand home services platform, Rizek, to turbocharge its speed to market with user-rich, financially viable, and

customer-centric assets. Astra Tech’s PayBy has been licensed by the Central Bank of UAE for Stored Value Facility (SVF) and Retail Payment Services (RPS) that will be integrated within the upcoming ultra platform to further unlock the massive potential of Astra Tech for its users, partners, and society at large.