UAE- based Digital Banking Start-up YAP Raises $41mn For Expansion
- ByStartupStory | July 4, 2022
A digital bank in the United Arab Emirates named YAP announced on Monday that it had raised $41 million and aimed to raise an additional $20 million to fund its expansion aspirations. Aljazira Capital, Abu Dawood Group, Astra Group, and Audacia Capital, all based in Saudi Arabia, were among the investors to date. YAP stated that it plans to finish its Series A before the year’s end.
According to YAP’s CEO and co-founder Marwan Hachem, the company would use the capital to expand into Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Ghana. “We recently received licences for electronic money institutions (EMIs) in Pakistan, payment service providers (PSPs) in Ghana, and Saudi Arabia. In addition to the bank, we will apply to the central bank, “said Hachem.
In order to become the first independent digital banking platform in the UAE, YAP teamed with Emirati lender RAK Bank and was introduced in 2021. According to YAP Managing Director and co-founder Anas Zaidan, it has collaborated with Bank AlJazira in Saudi Arabia, where it will soft-launch in October before going live fully in the first quarter of next year.
“We think Saudi Arabia is one of the greatest markets in the Middle East, so that’s a very important step for us,” the speaker said. YAP intends to deploy its services in Pakistan and Ghana by the end of the year, where they are currently being tested, and in Egypt, the most populous Arab country, the following year.
According to CEO Hachem, YAP will focus on providing services to the large remittance market of Pakistani workers employed in the Gulf who send billions of dollars home each year. The digital bank reported that over 130,000 individuals had downloaded the YAP app so far.
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