NEOPAY and Deem Finance have announced a strategic partnership to expand access to working capital for small and medium-sized enterprises across the UAE.
NEOPAY is a digital payments provider active in merchant acquiring, omnichannel payment acceptance, payment orchestration, Embedded Finance and issuer processing across the Middle East. Deem Finance is a financial services company regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE, offering financing solutions for individuals and businesses.
Embedded lending built on transaction data
Under the partnership, NEOPAY and Deem Finance intend to give SMEs faster access to funding by using merchants' digital payment and point-of-sale transaction activity. Eligible merchants can receive tailored funding offers and access approved funds through a digital process, according to the companies.
NEOPAY's embedded lending platform, which applies artificial intelligence, forms the basis of the arrangement. The platform analyses merchants' payment and transaction data to generate pre-qualified financing offers that are presented within the merchant's existing digital experience. NEOPAY stated that the approach is intended to reduce some of the friction associated with traditional lending processes, including extensive documentation requirements and the need to engage a separate lending institution. The end-to-end journey covers pre-qualification, a digital application and funding disbursement.
Deem Finance's role as a regulated lending partner extends the platform's scope. As a licensed institution, Deem Finance brings credit underwriting and governance standards associated with regulated UAE lenders, which the companies said should allow NEOPAY merchants to access working capital that is both data-driven and subject to established customer protection requirements.
Vibhor Mundhada, CEO of NEOPAY, described the collaboration as consistent with the company's ambition to act as a merchant growth partner, noting that the addition of Deem Finance to its embedded lending platform is intended to help merchants access funding and manage growth. Zulfiqar Hamid, Interim CEO of Deem Finance, said the partnership reflects the company's focus on expanding access to regulated credit through ecosystem partnerships, adding that the use of alternative transaction data is intended to support SMEs with working capital solutions while maintaining governance and transparency standards.
Market context
The partnership reflects a broader trend in which payments providers and regulated lenders are combining transaction data with licenced credit infrastructure to address SME financing gaps. Access to working capital has historically been a constraint for smaller businesses, particularly where conventional lending processes require extensive documentation or lack visibility into a merchant's actual sales activity. By linking payment data directly to credit assessment, embedded lending arrangements of this kind aim to shorten the distance between a merchant's transaction history and its ability to secure financing.
NEOPAY is backed by a consortium led by Arcapita and Dgpays, with continued support from Mashreq, and serves merchants across retail, ecommerce, hospitality, and the public sector. The partnership with Deem Finance adds a regulated credit channel to NEOPAY's existing payment infrastructure, reflecting the wider convergence of payments and regulated financial services taking shape in the UAE.
