The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2014–2025
HyperPay's full-payments bet: Saudi gateway to licensed cards and wallets
Riyadh's HyperPay grew from a 2014 online gateway into a licensed full-stack payments bet — Mastercard-backed, now $2.5B monthly volume.
HyperPay
What the business is
Payments infrastructure for businesses across MENA: online card gateway, wallet and e-money services, payouts, invoicing and fraud management, now extending into SME commercial card issuing — HQ Riyadh with offices in seven more markets.
Starting capital：$36.7M (SAR 138M) raised in 2022 in a round led by Mastercard, with Amwal Capital Partners and AB Ventures participating.
How it started
Muhannad Ebwini founded HyperPay in Saudi Arabia in 2014 as a payment gateway for online websites. By 2022 it was headquartered in Riyadh with offices in Amman and Dubai — most of its team based in Amman — and press coverage described a fast-growing gateway offering payment processing, invoicing and risk and fraud management to support small businesses.
What happened
In May–June 2022 Mastercard led a $36.7M round with Amwal Capital Partners and AB Ventures, with the money earmarked for expansion into Egypt, Qatar and Oman and for growth beyond payments. According to COO Marwan Ibrahim, HyperPay then shifted strategy in late 2023: from online payment gateway to a broader provider of digital payment solutions for companies across the region. In January 2025 the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) licensed HyperPay's Saudi entity to run digital payment services via an electronic wallet, and in September 2025 Mastercard announced the two companies would issue commercial cards in Saudi Arabia — later the UAE and Qatar — adding that HyperPay had received electronic-money institution license approval.
How it ended up
Still independent and scaling: in November 2025 the company said it processes over $2.5B in transactions monthly for more than 17,000 clients, with offices in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan and plans to keep expanding — while its new wallet and commercial-card lines are only just beginning to roll out.
Background
HyperPay was founded in Saudi Arabia in 2014 by Muhannad Ebwini as a payment gateway for online websites: card acceptance, risk and fraud management, instalments and invoicing for merchants. By 2022 it was headquartered in Riyadh with offices in Amman and Dubai — most of its team based in Amman — and press coverage described a fast-growing gateway for small businesses in the Middle East and North Africa.
In May–June 2022 Mastercard led a $36.7M (SAR 138M) round with Amwal Capital Partners and AB Ventures, with the money earmarked for expansion into Egypt, Qatar and Oman and for growth beyond payments. Then, according to COO Marwan Ibrahim, HyperPay shifted strategy in late 2023: from being an online payment gateway to becoming a broader provider of digital payment solutions for companies across the region.
The shift ran on licenses and network partnerships. In January 2025 SAMA licensed HyperPay's Saudi entity to operate digital payment services through an electronic wallet; in September 2025 Mastercard announced the two companies would issue commercial cards in Saudi Arabia and later the UAE and Qatar, saying HyperPay had also received electronic-money institution license approval. Mastercard noted that in Saudi Arabia 99% of SMEs already accept digital payments.
The numbers have scaled: in November 2025 Ibrahim said HyperPay processes over $2.5B in transactions monthly for more than 17,000 clients, with offices across the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. The newer bet — wallets, e-money and SME commercial cards — is only just starting to roll out, so whether the pivot earns more than processing fees ever did is still being tested.
What has to be true
- Gateway services are interchangeable and priced by volume, so HyperPay needed to own more of the payment stack — wallets, e-money and cards — to build margin and defensibility.
- Mastercard's equity gave HyperPay what a gateway cannot buy alone: a network relationship that later deepened into co-issuing commercial cards across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
- Licensing is the moat: SAMA's January 2025 e-wallet license and the electronic-money approval moved HyperPay from a merchant-services vendor into a regulated payments institution.
- The pivot is measured but not proven: $2.5B in monthly volume and 17,000+ clients show the base, while wallet adoption and card issuing will decide whether the full-stack bet was right.
What can be applied
A payment gateway is a thin, priceable layer between merchants and banks; the durable move is to climb toward licenses, wallets and issuing — a climb only regulators and network partners can open.
Aftermath
As of 18 November 2025 HyperPay is live, independent and founder-led under CEO Muhannad Ebwini, processing over $2.5B monthly for more than 17,000 clients, with offices in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. Its licensed push — SAMA's e-wallet license (January 2025), electronic-money approval, and the Mastercard collaboration to issue SME commercial cards in Saudi Arabia, then the UAE and Qatar — is announced but not yet fully rolled out. The open question is whether full-stack payments will earn margins that pure gateway processing never did.
Sources
- Hyperpay raises $36.7 million led by Mastercard
- HyperPay Raises $36.7M to Expand Payment Services to MENA Merchants
- HyperPay obtains approval from SAMA for operations
- Mastercard collaborates with HyperPay to transform the region's business payments landscape
- Ibrahim: HyperPay processes over $2.5bn in monthly transactions
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