Winds of CHANGE
Focusing mainly on SMEs and digital wallets, DCI sells digital solutions in Saudi Arabia in partnership with banks and businesses of the future.
WE COMMENCED OPERATIONS FIVE YEARS AGO
with the aim of providing seamless payment solutions to the market. Smalland medium-scaled e-commerce merchants often found it tedious to procure payment gateway services and facilitate their clients’ online purchases due to high costs and lengthy procedures involved in acquiring and operating payment gateways. PayTabs facilitates e-commerce transactions with technology developed in-house. There were many challenges in the beginning, especially as the market was unfamiliar with payment gateway services. We commenced processing payments in Saudi Arabia and expanded into other GCC countries within a few years. We now have a presence in the MENA region, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. While our payment processing can facilitate transactions in up to 168 currencies, locally we strive to recruit and develop exceptional homegrown talent to maintain a personalized and local approach in our services. We provide start-ups with a seamless onboarding with affordable service fees and flexible pricing plans. Merchants seeking in-depth analysis of their corporate payments are offered business intelligence through smart tools found on their PayTabs Business Manager dashboard. We also target large-scale merchants by customizing our products and pricing plans to suit their needs. It is vital for businesses to understand the advantages of having an online presence in expanding their footprint.
that enables individuals and SMEs to open accounts in less than 20 seconds and use this account to transfer and receive money within seconds. HalalaH was built in-house and our main edge is that we serve the needs of the local society and work on customizing our offering to solve our clients’ needs. For example, one sector that we serve is grocery shops; this sector was never targeted by the existing banking system, mainly because it had very specific needs and issues. HalalaH works on tailor-made solutions to make them fit for both businesses and individuals. We serve those who are not served or under-served. We are demand-driven, so when it comes to corporate, our target is definitely SMEs. We do not have any value to offer to large companies at the moment. When it comes to individuals, we always focus on segments that need services and solutions, such as students or blue-collar workers. Overall, the ecosystem is much better than it was before. There are no issues related to access to funding. However, there is a lack of talent. There is talent in this country, but we still need to make things easier to attract international talent that will play a great role in knowledge transfer.
to be licensed by SAMA to perform payment transactions in the Kingdom. STC Pay’s vision is to induce cashless transactions. We are an integrated payment service provider, and we innovate ourselves according to the highest customer-oriented standards. STC Pay currently has two main services: payments and remittances. Under the payment division, we facilitate payments for all kinds of merchants and businesses, including traditional offline stores, e-commerce companies, utilities companies, and others. Payments via STC Pay are a matter of convenience, and we target POS situations where we can provide added value. We have already seen an increase in the use of STC Pay at gas stations, an area where cash dominates. We have shortlisted the most common user cases and are building our concept innovations around them. While running ongoing experiments on these user cases, we are able to learn from our failures and optimize our concept. For remittances, the end-user experience we provide is unique. We provide our customers with a solid experience and competitive price, which are two essential ingredients for remittance. Our partnership with Western Union underlines our strength in this area. It is not just about the value position today, but rather how fast one can move to create new value propositions for tomorrow.
Can you walk us through HyperPay’s core business model and how it facilitates online transactions?
In the beginning, we defined ourselves as a payment gateway to process both online payments through card schemes, such as Visa and Mastercard, and local payment systems such as Sadad and Mada. At present, our system works between banks, the card scheme, the merchant, and the end user. When the end user reaches the point of payment via credit card and submits the payment form, we process the information and run a due diligence check on the card details, which includes a 120-point fraud check. We then pass on the information to the acquiring bank; that response is sent to the card scheme to confirm and process the purchase. The merchant and the purchaser are also informed of the purchase confirmation or rejection. Remarkably, all of this is done in two seconds.
What products do you have in the pipeline, and how do they fit into your growth strategy going forward?
We work with nine out of 11 banks engaged in acquiring; we will soon sign with the other two banks and represent the entire banking network in Saudi Arabia, a feat we have already achieved in Jordan. Our next plan is to expand into Egypt. Moreover, with our network of banks, which we call solutions network, we will begin to launch new products. While we continue to develop APIs to easily connect merchants on payment gateways and enhance our anti-fraud system, we are developing new invoicing system to tap into the large market of Instagram shopping in Saudi Arabia. We also created a mobile application that helps merchants track transactions and sales. In terms of clients, we have developed a customized solution for hotel invoicing in Jordan, where we usually test products before launching them into other markets, which in this case would be the UAE and Saudi Arabia. ✖
Could you tell us more about your primary expertise, and how you have advanced in recent years?
Our expertise focuses on two components; financial content, similar to Reuters or Bloomberg Terminal, and fintech. We are the pioneers in the financial content industry in Saudi Arabia, being the first to introduce subscription-based content to retail masses. In fintech, we work in a specialized domain, providing software technology. We provide brokerage management systems, asset management systems, custody management systems, and client relationship management (CRM) tailored to the investment management industry and anti-money-laundering systems. The latest innovation are robo-advisors, which help bring investment management into a retail framework.
How important is continuous innovation, and to what extent do you develop technologies in-house?
Continuous innovation is key to maintaining market leadership and growth, both vertically and horizontally. If companies like ours slow down innovation, we risk losing our standing or getting stuck in a stagnant position. Our company was based on a game-changing innovation. All we do comes from value-based innovation. In 2005, we expanded into market information. When Tadawul had an economic slowdown, investors started inquiring about debt analyzing, and we included that. Our screens became more mature, incorporating more analytics. Starting from a purely B2C model, we became a B2B platform. All banks and brokers started to use our platform, which is the case for the majority today. Next, we developed our brokerage management system for which we are overhauling our complete system, a process we call legacy modernization. User experience is the most important for us. Although we had a first-mover advantage with our screens, we needed to adjust to new realities. Our focus has expanded throughout all emerging and frontier markets, from Morocco to the Philippines. Our main offices are in Riyadh, Dubai, and Cairo, and our secondary offices are in Kuwait, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. ✖