• Saudi Arabia-based fintech Hala has acquired UAE-based fintech Paymennt.com, previously called PointCheckout, for an unknown sum.
• Founded in 2016 by Esam Alnahdi and Maher Loubieh, Hala provides financial tools to entrepreneurs and SMEs to start, run and grow their businesses. While Paymennt.com, established in 2017 by Bashar Saleh and Tarek Ghobar, offers SMEs a platform to support their offline-to-online journey along with an integrated online payment solution.
• This acquisition will allow Hala to further enhance its product offerings by incorporating online payments, enabling its SME customers to increase their online presence and process omnichannel payments both offline and online.
• This is the second acquisition for Hala since its inception, the first of which was the acquisition of the Saudi startup, Fresh, in 2021.

Press release:

The fast-growing Saudi Arabia-based regional fintech, Hala today announced that it has acquired, through its holding company, United Arab Emirates Paymennt.com during the second edition of the Largest Global Technology event – LEAP 2023. 

Paymennt.com, previously called PointCheckout established in 2017 and co-founded by Bashar Saleh and Tarek Ghobar, is a payment service provider, regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Market’s RegLab, and with offices across UAE and Jordan. Paymennt.com serves more than 2,000 micro and small businesses by offering them a platform to support their offline-to-online journey along with an integrated online payment solution and has managed to grow by over 250 per cent in payment processing year-over-year.

This acquisition will allow Hala to further enhance its product offerings by incorporating online payments, enabling its SME customers to increase their online presence and process omnichannel payments both offline and online.

Hala had made progressive leaps within the fintech industry ever since it commenced its operations in 2018, with a clear focus on serving SMEs. The company witnessed significant growth in 2022 by doubling its customer base and its revenues year over year. 

It is worth noting that this is the second acquisition for Hala since its inception, the first of which was the acquisition of the Saudi startup “Fresh” in 2021, which is now called Hala cashier and which currently enables Hala to integrate non-financial added value services to its SME customers, a key pillar of Hala’s strategy aimed at building a one-stop shop for SME’s. 

Speaking at the second edition of LEAP – The Largest Global Technology Event, Maher Loubieh, co-founder, Hala said, “We are excited to welcome Paymennt team to our family to join us in executing our shared vision. The trigger was simple, we met smart entrepreneurs who share a similar vision and who are building a complementary product that clearly fits within our strategy. With more to come, this is our first endeavour outside our homeland and is the first block towards executing our global vision. We believe integrating the offering of Paymennt.com with that of Hala will provide a major added value for our customers in Saudi and in UAE”.

Terming the acquisition as one major step forward for SME payments, Bashar Saleh, co-founder and chief executive officer, Paymennt.com said, “It’s a privilege to join a key player in the region’s fintech ecosystem, one that shares our commitment and passion to cater to the needs of SMEs. We are very proud of what our team has achieved to date, having gained the trust of our merchants in processing their payments. Now, being part of the Hala family, we can better serve our customers and grow across the Middle East and beyond.”