• Saudi Arabia-based fintech NearPay, has raised SAR8 million ($2.1 million) pre-Seed investment from a group of angel investors.
• Founded by Mohammed Al-Aiban and Hamza AlFarhan in early 2020, NearPay provides small merchants access to NFC-enabled contactless payment solutions. NFC technology constitutes 79 per cent of point of sale (POS) payments in the Kingdom, according to the latest reports issued by the Saudi Payments Company.
• The startup plans to use the fresh funds to accelerate the launch of its softPOS product, which enables traders to accept payments from their customers directly on their phones.
• Earlier this year, NearPay raised a $600,000 (SAR2.2 million) in a pre-Seed round, led by Saudi angel investor Musaab Hakami alongside other angel investors.

Press release

NearPay, a financial payments and technology company, announced the closure of its seed investment tour worth 8 million SAR through angel investors.

The company started operating in 2020 and was founded by Mohammed Al-Aiban and Hamza AlFarhan and this is the second investment for NearPay in just five months after the company announced in January 2021 that it has received an investment of 2.2 million riyals in the pre-seed phase and the company focuses on building new payment systems to enable payments companies, banks and financial technology companies to operate the latest technologies in the global markets.

Through this investment, the company aims to launch its first softPOS product in 2021, a solution that helps traders collect payments from mobile customers directly through contactless payment, which is witnessing significant growth in Saudi Arabia and accounts for 79% of the payment to points of sale according to the latest reports issued by Saudi Payments Company, and also focuses through this investment to attract more competencies in the coming period.

Founder and CEO Mohammed Al-Aiban commented: The Kingdom's Vision 2030, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and its interest in the financial technologies aspect, as well as the support of the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia and Saudi Payments Company, has greatly helped the emergence of Saudi projects in the financial technology sector and we are seeking over the next 5 years to gain a significant market share in this sector.