The problem
In MENA, launching a payment card meant a months-long slog: find a processor, secure a BIN sponsor with card-scheme membership, and pay legacy vendors whose licensed, third-party technology was expensive, slow, and missing the modern APIs fintechs needed.
How it works
NymCard offers plug-and-play card infrastructure on its proprietary nCore platform: full-stack, API-first issuing and processing, embedded lending, and real-time money movement. Clients — banks, fintechs, enterprises, telecom operators — launch branded virtual and plastic card programs with mobile wallets in about eight weeks, while NymCard holds the regulated ground (in-principle approval from ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority to offer money services).
Pain points
BIN-sponsorship bottlenecks, card launches measured in months, legacy stacks with no usable APIs, and founders burning runway on payments compliance instead of product.
Business model
B2B infrastructure: fees from card programs issued and processed on nCore, plus embedded-lending and money-movement services, sold to financial institutions and large enterprises across the region.
Challenges
Card issuance is tightly controlled and highly regulated in every market, so each of the 10+ MENA countries adds licensing complexity; global Banking-as-a-Service entrants are circling the same clients; and growth across three verticals strains program-management capacity.
Funding
- Raised: $4.4M in two unannounced rounds, then a $7.6M Series A (Feb 2021) led by Shorooq Partners with OTF Jasoor Ventures and VentureSouq, taking total funding to $12M (MENAbytes).
- Raised: $33M Series B (Mar 2025) led by QED Investors — its largest regional investment and first Gulf lead — with Lunate, Dubai Future District Fund, Mashreq Bank, Knollwood, Reciprocal, FJ Labs, Endeavor, Shorooq, and Oraseya Capital (WAYA).
Latest — Mar 2025
On 19 March 2025 NymCard closed its $33M Series B led by QED Investors to solidify its presence across 10+ MENA markets and strengthen payment infrastructure across card-issuing processing, embedded lending, and money movement (WAYA).