Online payment platform PayFort, owned by Amazon, registered a new, wholly owned company in Saudi Arabia to expand its business there. Details about the new company were not disclosed.
This is a significant step for the fintech company and for online payments in the Kingdom—the foreign business license is the first of its kind to be given to a payment services operator. PayFort’s expansion into Saudi Arabia comes as the country looks to the private sector to drive economic growth and boost its non-oil growth.
PayFort Managing Director Omar Soudodi noted in a press release that Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest market, is key to the company, and its registration through the Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority would help push for more aggressive growth in the country. He also said that the country’s push to diversify from oil would be a boon to PayFort.
“Recent initiatives to further diversify the Saudi economy and grow hitherto undeveloped economic sectors, such as entertainment and tourism, are likely to help accelerate an already fast-growing digital payments market,” Soudodi said in a statement announcing the registration.
PayFort’s State of Payments 2017 report found that Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are the fastest growing electronic payments markets in the region. It also estimated that Saudi Arabia conducted transactions worth a combined $8.3 billion in 2016. With the Kingdom reopening cinemas after a 35-year hiatus, payment firms like PayFort is looking forward to a significant volume of business in the country as the entertainment sector is forecast to pick up.
“More than 40% appetite for new financial companies and services among Saudis, this is particularly significant for PayFort and attests the importance of investing in the country,” said Srinivas Rao, director of digital commerce and payments at Amazon.
PayFort, founded in 2013, has partnersh