Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Mastercard has partnered with Geidea to offer consumers and businesses greater access to advanced card and payment solutions.

Through Mastercard, Geidea will extend its range of services and products, operating as an issuer. As part of the agreement, Geidea will leverage Mastercard’s leading-edge technology to issue BIN ranges and enable consumers, merchants and fintechs across the Kingdom to benefit from innovative payment solutions.

The partnership will contribute to the advancement of Geidea and Mastercard’s digital enablement ecosystems through the creation of a diverse selection of BIN Sponsorship offerings. Underlining both entities’ commitment to transforming the Kingdom into a hub of innovation, the agreement will also lead to greater fintech enablement across the country and wider region, bolstering the Saudi and MENA digital economies.

“At Mastercard we leverage technologies to modernize and deliver innovative solutions that unlock the true potential of inclusive growth and bring more people into the digital economy. Our multi-rail expertise and expanding suite of programs and services designed to enable the fintech ecosystem to build, launch and grow. Together with Geidea, we will empower consumers, merchants and fintechs to take full advantage of state-of-the-art payment solutions,” said Adam Jones, Country General Manager, MENA Central.

“As a company fully committed to making payments and commerce technology accessible, affordable and intuitive for everyone, we are delighted to have joined forces with Mastercard to empower Saudi merchants, fintechs and the Kingdom’s startup community.  In line with our work to support merchants of all types and sizes with the tools to start, manage and grow their business, our advanced card solutions will prime more local enterprises for success, enabling them to experience the full benefits of innovative payment solutions” said, Laurent Dhaeyer, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer, Geidea.

This new partnership builds on previous collaborations between Geidea and Mastercard. It follows a strategic agreement launched in 2021 paving the way for Geidea to accept Mastercard payments on its novel Tap-on-Phone solution in Saudi Arabia — the first such agreement to be signed in the Middle East and North Africa. Geidea is the first fintech company to roll out this contactless payment acceptance technology across the Kingdom, which will enable businesses to use smartphones as payment acceptance devices.

The Geidea network provides best-in-class payment and e-commerce solutions to more than 300,000 merchants – covering 800,000 payment terminals within the Kingdom.

About Mastercard (NYSE: MA)

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

www.mastercard.com

About Geidea

Geidea is a leading fintech and fully licensed payment service provider offering digital banking technology, smart payment terminals and business management solutions for both financial institutions and small businesses in retail and digital commerce. Founded in Saudi Arabia, the company is expanding rapidly across the region with operations in UAE and Egypt and is targeting seven more countries in the next two years, serving both financial institutions and small and medium businesses. 

Founded in 2008 by Saudi entrepreneur Abdullah Faisal Al-Othman, the company believes that the latest payments and commerce technology should be accessible, affordable, and intuitive for everyone. The company continues to focus on its mission of empowering merchants with the tools to start, manage and grow their businesses which is at the heart of what Geidea does. 

Geidea has become the first non-bank entity in the Kingdom to obtain an acquiring license from the Saudi Central Bank “SAMA” to provide financial services directly to merchants and small and medium enterprises. 

Geidea now has more than 2000 employees across all offices, with over 150,000 merchants, and provides more than 700,000 terminals within the Kingdom with a 75% market share. The company is proud to say that it is the biggest fintech company in Saudi and is ranked one of the top 25 fintech companies in the Middle East by Forbes