PayTabs Group has agreed to acquire Amazon Payment Services' Middle East and North Africa operations for more than USD 100 million.
Both parties have approved the transaction, which is valued at more than USD 100 million and is expected to consolidate a payments market that industry observers have long described as fragmented across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory regimes.
Deal structure and strategic rationale
Under the agreement, PayTabs will take over Amazon Payment Services' regional payments infrastructure, adding it to its existing operations. PayTabs has spent several years developing banking connectivity, regulatory licences, and AI-driven payment infrastructure across the region. According to the official press release, the acquisition is expected to extend that groundwork, increasing the company's operational scale and its position within the MENA payments sector.
Following completion, PayTabs is expected to operate as a regional payments infrastructure provider offering payment processing, automated switching, and payout services on a single platform. The company has stated that the combined entity will be able to support faster merchant onboarding and strengthen compliance with local regulatory requirements across the markets in which it operates.
Both companies have indicated that continuity will be a priority during the transition, with the integration designed to minimise disruption to existing merchants and partners using either platform.
Market scale and implications
Once combined, the two operations are expected to process more than USD 40 billion in payment volume annually across the MENA region. The transaction reflects a broader pattern of consolidation in regional payments markets, where global platforms have periodically sought local partners or acquirers to manage payments infrastructure in markets with distinct regulatory and banking requirements.
For Amazon, the transfer of its MENA payments operations follows a wider trend among global e-commerce and technology firms of divesting non-core regional payments infrastructure to specialised local providers, allowing those providers to consolidate licensing, banking relationships, and compliance functions under a single entity. For PayTabs, the acquisition is expected to reinforce its position as a full-stack payments infrastructure provider in the region, combining processing, switching, and payout capabilities that had previously been split across multiple providers, including Amazon's own payments unit.
No further financial or regulatory details of the transaction, including specific closing conditions or expected completion date, have been disclosed by either company.
