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STC Pay

Can Saudi Arabia's largest mobile wallet evolve into the kingdom's dominant digital bank for consumers and SMEs?

Founded2018
HQRiyadh, Saudi Arabia
Total raised$200M
Latest roundCorporate Minority (Western Union, ~2020)
IndustryFintech / Neobank
The story

Launched in 2018 as STC Pay, the mobile wallet arm of Saudi Telecom Company, it became Saudi Arabia's largest e-wallet and one of the first SAMA-licensed EMIs. After Western Union's ~$200M minority investment in 2020 and the issuance of a digital banking license in 2021, the company replatformed onto Temenos and scaled to 8M+ accounts. In 2025 it completed its pivot from wallet to fully licensed digital bank, rebranding to STC Bank and expanding into SME merchant services, financing (working capital, capex, POS) and payroll.

Last 12 months
2025-01
Product timeline
2018
Launched as STC Pay, a mobile digital wallet by Saudi Telecom Company.· banking
2020
Received EMI license from SAMA; Western Union takes ~$200M minority stake.· banking
2020
Selected Temenos Transact and Temenos Payments as core banking platform.· banking
2021
Partnered with Visa to issue Visa cards to STC Pay customers.· card
2021
Granted digital banking license by SAMA, paving the way for STC Bank conversion.· banking
2022
Scaled to 8 million accounts on Temenos open platform for composable banking.· banking
2025
Completed pilot, received SAMA 'no objection' and rebranded from STC Pay to STC Bank (effective 28 Jan 2025).· pivot
Regulated entities
EMI (Electronic Money Institution)
Saudi Arabia (SAMA) · 2020
STC Pay
Digital Bank License
Saudi Arabia (SAMA) · 2021
STC Bank (بنك اس تي سي)
Banking Operations Clearance
Saudi Arabia (SAMA) · 2025
STC Bank
The stack
Payments / PSP
STC Pay (self-operated wallet)Visa (card issuance partner)
Banking / BaaS
STC Bank (in-house, SAMA-licensed)
Card issuing
Visa (network); issuance in-house under STC Bank license
Ledger
Temenos (core banking ledger)
Lending
STC Bank (in-house)تمويل نقاط البيع (POS financing)تمويل النفقات الرأسمالية (Capex financing)تمويل رأس المال العامل (Working capital financing)تمويل سمارت (Smart financing - personal)التمويل الشخصي (Personal financing)Cash loans (STC Pay Bahrain)
Payroll
STC Bank (in-house payroll product for SME merchants)
Sponsor bank
STC Bank (in-house, SAMA-licensed)
FX & payouts
Western Union (international remittance partner)
Accounting gap: significant