“Can a Saudi-built payment orchestration platform become the dominant embedded fintech infrastructure layer across the MENA region?”
Founded in 2014 as a Saudi/MENA-focused payment gateway for SMEs, PayTabs evolved into a broader payment infrastructure company. Through acquisitions (Digital Pay 2022, TAPn'GO 2026) and partnerships (Tabby for BNPL, FlapKap for RBF, Fintech Galaxy for open banking), it expanded from merchant acquiring into payment orchestration, national payment switching, and card issuance — positioning itself as the embedded fintech infrastructure for banks, fintechs, and governments across MENA.
PayTabs discloses PayTabs Issuance (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
PayTabs does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through PayTabs Issuance (in-house).
PayTabs processes payments through PayTabs Payment Gateway (self-operated), PayTabs Payment Orchestration (self-operated) and SoftPOS / PT Touch (self-operated).
PayTabs's cards are issued through PayTabs Issuance (in-house).
PayTabs's lending and capital products are provided by FlapKap.
PayTabs connects to bank accounts through Fintech Galaxy.
PayTabs integrates with Xero, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, OpenCart and Shopify.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 6 layers in PayTabs's stack: Payments / PSP (PayTabs Payment Gateway (self-operated), PayTabs Payment Orchestration (self-operated) and SoftPOS / PT Touch (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (PayTabs Issuance (in-house)); Card issuing (PayTabs Issuance (in-house)); Lending (FlapKap, FlapKap revenue-based financing (UAE SMEs), Tabby BNPL at checkout and Installments by PayTabs); Open banking (Fintech Galaxy); Accounting (Xero, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop and 2 others).
PayTabs was founded by Abdulaziz Al Jouf and is founded in 2014, headquartered in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) / UAE.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against PayTabs and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.