ISLAMABAD: Pakistan-founded fintech ABHI has partnered with Saudi Arabia’s NOX Group to provide its employees access to wages before their regular payday, the company said on Thursday, expanding the startup’s footprint in the Kingdom as it builds its business across the Gulf.
Founded in Pakistan in 2021, ABHI provides earned wage access (EWA), payroll and other embedded financial services. The company has since expanded beyond its home market, establishing its global headquarters in Abu Dhabi and entering Saudi Arabia through a partnership with Alraedah Digital Solutions.
Saudi Arabia has sought to rapidly expand its financial technology industry as part of its Vision 2030 economic diversification program. The Kingdom’s fintech strategy aims to have 525 fintech companies operating in the country by 2030, create around 18,000 jobs and raise the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product to SR13 billion ($3.47 billion).
“Financial wellbeing starts with having greater control over the income you have already earned,” ABHI co-founder and CEO Omair Ansari said in a statement.
“At ABHI, we believe employees should have the flexibility to access their earned wages when they need them, rather than being restricted by a fixed payday.”
Under the partnership, employees of Saudi-based NOX Group will be able to access a portion of salary they have already earned before their normal monthly payday.
Earned wage access services differ from conventional salary advances or consumer loans by allowing workers to draw against wages already accrued during a pay cycle. Employers and fintech companies increasingly offer such services as a way for workers to manage expenses or short-term cash-flow needs between paydays.
“Our partnership with NOX Group reflects a shared commitment to creating a more supportive employee experience, where financial flexibility is an integral part of the workplace,” Ansari said.
The NOX agreement is the latest in a series of Saudi partnerships announced by ABHI as the Pakistani-founded company expands its earned wage access business in the Kingdom.
In recent months, ABHI has announced similar arrangements with Saudi businesses and companies operating in the Kingdom, including online car marketplace Syarah, technology company Squadio, QBS and aviation services provider TAM Aerospace & Defense.
The expansion marks another stage in ABHI’s growth outside Pakistan. The company was selected for Y Combinator in 2021 and raised $17 million in a funding round in 2022 at a valuation of $90 million, according to the company. It later expanded into the United Arab Emirates and established its global headquarters in Abu Dhabi in 2024 with support from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office.
ABHI has also expanded its regulated financial-services operations in Pakistan through the acquisition, alongside TPL Corp, of FINCA Microfinance Bank, subsequently rebranded as ABHI Microfinance Bank.
Its Saudi expansion comes as Riyadh seeks to attract international financial technology companies and increase competition and innovation in financial services. Saudi Arabia’s Financial Sector Development Program identifies fintech as a central component of Vision 2030 and aims to position the Kingdom as a global financial technology hub.
