A partnership that paves the way for new digital payment solutions

PayBy, Astra Tech’s fintech platform, licensed by the UAE’s Central Bank to offer a wide range of fintech services, has secured a basic membership license with MasterCard, becoming one of the first fintech platforms. This achievement leverages Astra Tech’s services to secure this license, which represents a major breakthrough in the fintech industry in the Middle East and North Africa region, which can now offer integrated financial services. For users. As part of its premium payment card offerings, PayBy will be the first financial technology company to introduce prepaid metal cards in a pioneering step, providing customers with superior convenience and financial flexibility.

Under this license, Astra will be able to offer digital and physical MasterCard cards to millions of users on its Botim and Payby platforms, offering licensing services and multi-currency prepaid cards. Astra is authorized to act as a collector and benefit from the MasterCard family of products, including payment gateways, mobile payments, fraud prevention solutions and cyber security.

In line with Astra’s vision to strengthen its position as a leader in supporting technology adoption initiatives in the region, Astra can offer BIN sponsorship services, allowing third-party financial technology companies to issue prepaid cards and connect to the MasterCard card network. Establish Astra’s position and ability to provide support to other financial technology companies in the region.

With over 100 million registered users and an 80% penetration rate in the UAE market, the BOTIM platform has the potential to become the largest digital technology platform for card issuance in the region, allowing millions of users to access advanced financial services. Within an integrated communication and interaction platform.

Abdullah Abu Al-Sheikh, co-founder and CEO of Astra Tech, which owns the BOTIM platform, said: “Our vision is to become the leading fintech platform in the Middle East and North Africa region, and Astra is now considered one of the leading fintech platforms in the region providing its services to millions of users daily. Biggest companies in the field. At Astra, we are committed to making life easier for our customers. Financial technology services are one of the most important and underdeveloped sectors in the region and we are keen to collaborate with MasterCard, the world’s leading and trusted payment technology provider, to ensure that we provide the best services to our customers.

For his part, Jihad Khalil, General Manager of Middle East and North Africa Eastern Region at MasterCard, said: “We are working at MasterCard to support fintech companies and find faster and better digital payment solutions. Easy. Using our BIN maintenance services to offer their best payment cards to other payment cards. We are excited to partner with PayBy to support their vision to empower fintechs. This partnership will give millions of users access to Mastercard’s global network and suite of products, as part of our joint efforts to create a more connected and inclusive digital future for all.

AstraTech, a UAE-based technology development and investment company, acquired Boteam and Payby earlier this year and expanded the capabilities of the leading VoIP application into a comprehensive application. The acquisition of Botem is considered a major deal in the technology scene in the Middle East and North Africa region as Botem is the most popular internet application in the region with over 100 million registered users and a penetration rate of 80%. in the UAE market.

Earlier this month, Astra launched its global remittance service, BOTIM, within the app, and the company continues to work to unlock the full potential of the app in the second quarter of 2023.