Tap Payments
“Can a MENA-native payment gateway become the default acquiring layer for the region by stitching together every local and global method behind one API?”
Founded2014
HQKuwait City, Kuwait
IndustryInfrastructure / Payments
The story
Tap Payments is a MENA-focused online payment gateway / acquiring platform serving merchants across the Gulf. Its strategy is to be the regional aggregator for global card networks plus local methods (KNET, mada, Fawry, Benefit, Apple Pay, Tabby), and it is increasingly partnering directly with networks (Mastercard POP, Click to Pay with Payment Passkey) to differentiate on approval rates and checkout UX rather than building a broader BaaS or lending stack.
Product timeline
2025
Partnered with Mastercard to launch Click to Pay with Payment Passkey for ecommerce· payments
2025
Selected by Mastercard as a launch partner for the Payment Optimization Platform (POP) alongside Adyen, NEOPAY and Worldpay· payments
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Tap Payments’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Tap Payments (self-operated)
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.