Tap Payments

Tap Payments launched in Kuwait in 2013 under its founder and group chief executive, Ali Abulhasan, and has offered electronic payment services in Saudi Arabia since 2018. Forbes Middle East, which ranked it 13th on its 2026 Fintech 50, now lists Saudi Arabia as its headquarters. Tap says more than 120,000 businesses use it, among them Talabat, Careem, flydubai, Wego and LuLu Hypermarkets.

It holds licences in each of the six Gulf states. The Central Bank of Kuwait granted an electronic payment service provider licence in March 2024, and the Central Bank of the UAE a retail payment services licence in April 2025, which Tap said completed its Gulf set. It is also licensed by the Saudi Central Bank and holds payment facilitator and payment service provider licences from the Central Bank of Egypt. Jordan and Lebanon bring its markets to nine.

Local methods are the main draw. Alongside Visa, Mastercard and American Express, Tap connects KNET in Kuwait, mada in Saudi Arabia, Benefit and BenefitPay in Bahrain, NAPS in Qatar, OmanNet, the UAE's Jaywan cards and Fawry in Egypt. Wallets include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, STC Pay, PayPal and Careem Pay, and the instalment options are Tabby, Tamara and Deema. Developers get a REST API, card and checkout SDKs for web, iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter, and plug-ins for WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify. Recurring payments, saved cards with network tokens, refunds, payouts and marketplace splits are documented.

Tap suits merchants selling across several Gulf countries that need each market's domestic debit scheme rather than international cards alone. Prices are not published on its site, so expect a quote. Some methods are tied to particular markets: its help centre lists Google Pay and PayPal for the UAE and Kuwait only, and Tabby for Saudi Arabia and the UAE.