What happened: Dubai-headquartered Nymcard has raised USD33 million in its Series B funding led by QED (Finextra). The banking-as-a-service company targets brands, fintech companies and financial institutions in the MENA region. It offers services in three core areas: card issuing processing, embedded lending, and money movement.
My comment: I remember hearing about NymCard for the first time in the early 2020s, and they seem to be continuously growing since then. Their success until today as a banking-as-a-service and infrastructure provider seems to come mostly from ‘fintech clients’ and not so much ‘embedded finance’ - at least so far. NymCard is regulated in the UAE and Qatar but is likely also seeking licences in other markets, such as Saudi Arabia. This means they can work with unregulated companies only in these regions, especially in the UAE, where they seem to focus on corporate card spending platforms and teenager-focused financial education apps. In the rest of the MENA region, they are likely powering regulated companies, mostly local banks and financial institutions.
That said, NymCard’s website displays a lot of embedded finance use cases, from marketplaces, mobility, and travel to healthcare payments (NymCard). Maybe these partners are already out there, and I have missed them, or NymCard is increasing its focus on non-financial companies. Technically, fintech and embedded finance are separate things, but we see in most markets that fintech comes first, and embedded finance starts after that - especially in areas where pure fintech has had limited success. So perhaps we will see a rise in embedded finance launch announcements in the MENA region?
