The archive · Consumer Apps · Strategic decision · 2022–2026
Astra Tech's Botim ultra-app bet: $500M G42 round, 90M users, fintech-first by 2025
Astra Tech bet MENA wants one ultra-app for calls, payments and services: $500M from G42, Botim's 90M registered users, now 150M+.
Astra Tech · Botim
What the business is
UAE consumer-tech company Astra Tech runs Botim, an app combining VoIP calls and messaging with payments, recharges, bill pay, money transfers and on-demand services, assembled by acquiring Botim, PayBy and Rizek.
Starting capital：$500M fundraising led by Abu Dhabi's G42, announced December 2022 after a $490M tranche in July 2022 that funded the PayBy acquisition.
How it started
Astra Tech was founded in early 2022 by Abdallah Abu Sheikh, the Jordanian serial entrepreneur behind Rizek, Barq and Bark EV. Its strategy was unusual for the region: raise large capital, hire a strong tech team, and acquire proven consumer apps to assemble an 'ultra platform' that would fight the 'platform fatigue' of scattered digital services.
What happened
In July 2022 Astra Tech raised $490M and acquired the Emirati fintech PayBy the next month. In December 2022 it announced a $500M round led by Abu Dhabi's AI group G42, and in January 2023 it acquired Botim — the region's leading VoIP app, founded in 2018 by Lei Guo and Renjian Zhou, with 90M registered and 25M monthly active users — to relaunch it as an ultra app with bill payments, government services and food and grocery ordering.
How it ended up
Still running and expanding: in October 2025 Astra Tech rebranded PayBy as 'botim money', adding transfers, prepaid cards, Send Now Pay Later micro-lending and investments, plus a business arm; botim reported over 150M users globally. In 2026 it integrated Microsoft Azure voice AI as it pushes a fintech-first, AI-native strategy.
Background
Astra Tech, founded in early 2022 in the UAE by serial entrepreneur Abdallah Abu Sheikh, bet that MENA consumers wanted one 'ultra app' for communication, payments, shopping and everyday services — a response to what it called platform fatigue from scattered digital offerings. Rather than building every feature from scratch, it chose a buy-and-integrate strategy: raise large capital, then acquire proven regional consumer apps and fuse them into a single platform.
The assembly line moved fast. In July 2022 Astra Tech raised $490M and bought the Emirati fintech PayBy the following month. In December 2022 it announced a $500M round led by Abu Dhabi's AI and cloud group G42, and in January 2023 it acquired Botim, the region's leading VoIP app founded in 2018 by Lei Guo and Renjian Zhou. Botim brought 90M registered users and 25M monthly actives, distribution that would have taken years and heavy acquisition spend to build.
Botim was relaunched as the ultra app, adding bill payments, government services and food and grocery ordering to its existing voice, video, messaging, recharge and money-transfer features. The fintech layer deepened in October 2025, when Astra Tech rebranded PayBy as 'botim money', consolidating transfers, prepaid cards, Send Now Pay Later micro-lending and investments under one identity, alongside a business arm for merchant payments and salary disbursement.
By early 2026 botim reported over 150M users globally — more than 8.5M in the UAE alone — and integrated Microsoft Azure voice AI to make financial services conversational, positioning itself as a fintech-first, AI-native platform inside the G42 ecosystem. The bet is still in motion: Astra Tech went from zero to one of the region's most-used consumer platforms in four years by buying distribution, then using regulation and AI to convert chat trust into money movement.
What has to be true
- It bought distribution instead of building it: Botim was already the region's leading VoIP app with 90M registered users, so the ultra app launched with a massive, trusted base.
- Regulated fintech was acquired, not invented: PayBy's payment-provider and stored-value licenses let botim money offer transfers, cards and lending without a long licensing runway.
- G42's $500M backing gave it both capital and an AI ecosystem, funding later moves like Microsoft Azure voice integration.
- Chat is high-frequency: communication was the hook that could convert daily conversations into financial transactions, which is exactly the fintech-first path the company took.
What can be applied
Own the distribution before the features: Botim's 90M users let Astra layer payments onto an app people opened daily, and PayBy's licenses turned chat trust into financial scale.
Aftermath
As of September 2, 2026, botim remains Astra Tech's flagship ultra app and is still scaling: over 150M users globally, including 8.5M+ in the UAE, as of early 2026. The October 2025 'botim money' rebrand consolidated PayBy's licensed fintech — transfers, prepaid cards, Send Now Pay Later, investments — under one brand, and a January 2026 Microsoft Azure voice-AI integration made financial services conversational. Astra Tech continues to operate privately within the G42 ecosystem, competing for the Gulf's digital wallet.
Sources
- Abu Dhabi's AI company G42 to lead Astra Tech's $500m funding round
- UAE's Astra Tech acquires Botim
- Astra Tech Renames PayBy as 'Botim Money' in Push to Grow Fintech Reach
- Botim Integrates Microsoft Azure AI for Advanced Voice Capabilities
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