Botim Money and Mastercard Expand Partnership to Boost UAE’s Cashless Ambitions

Botim Money has deepened its partnership with Mastercard in a move that signals bigger ambitions for digital payments in the UAE. The two sides have expanded a collaboration that has already been running for more than two years, setting out a longer-term roadmap focused on card issuance and digital-first payment experiences.

At the heart of the announcement is a simple but quite powerful point: botim Money cards come with no minimum salary requirement. In a country where income thresholds can sometimes be a bit of a faff for workers on the lower end of the pay scale, this opens the door wider to residents who may previously have found access to card products limited.

The extended agreement builds on the Mastercard cards already issued under the platform and lays the groundwork for further development across spending, payments and financial services. In practical terms, it means more features and use cases are expected to roll out over time, anchored in what both companies describe as a reliable, digital-first model.

Dr Tariq Bin Hendi, Board Member at Astra Tech and CEO of botim, said card payments have become part of daily life in the UAE and need to be “reliable and inclusive by design”. He noted that strengthening the strategic collaboration with Mastercard would help botim Money deliver digital-first payment experiences to a broader segment of residents, while continuing to refine its card offering over time.

Mastercard’s Gina Petersen-Skyrme, Senior Vice President and Country Manager for UAE and Oman, described the move as part of Mastercard’s push for secure and scalable payment solutions. By pairing its global network with botim Money’s digital platform, she said, the two companies are aiming to enable seamless and trusted transactions.

The timing is not random. Dubai has set a target for 90% of all transactions to be cashless by the end of 2026. That’s ambitious, but not out of reach. And believe it or not, in many parts of the city you already struggle to find a reason to carry cash. By widening eligibility through a regulated card programme, this partnership fits neatly into the broader Cashless Strategy and positions botim Money as a practical layer in the modernisation of payments.

From where I stand, covering startups across the MENA region for Arageek, financial inclusion stories always hit close to home. I’ve met founders who couldn’t open basic accounts in their early days because of rigid thresholds. So when a product removes a salary floor, it may sound like a technical tweak, but for many gig workers and new arrivals it’s spot on. It lowers one more barrier.

That said, success will depend on execution. Expanding eligibility is one thing; ensuring long-term user trust and clear value is another. I reckon the real test will be how the card proposition evolves, whether through better rewards, smoother international payments, or integration with lending and remittance services already available on the platform.

Botim Money, formerly known as PayBy, operates under licences from the UAE Central Bank, including Stored Value Facility (SVF) and Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) approvals. It forms part of Astra Tech’s ecosystem and powers the financial layer of botim, which reports more than 150 million users globally, including over 8.5 million in the UAE.

For a country sprinting towards a cash-light future, partnerships like this are definately part of the bigger picture. The direction of travel is clear. The only question now is who will move fastest, and who will make digital payments feel less like a system upgrade and more like second nature, you know?

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