MoneyHash Partners with Wayl to Navigate Iraq’s Payment Landscape

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 24-02-2026

4 min

MoneyHash partners with Baghdad’s Wayl to expand into Iraq’s complex payments market.

The tie-up gives merchants access to global cards and local favourites.

Executives stress 'local expertise' to navigate rules, habits and infrastructure.

Wayl handles regulatory heavy lifting as merchant of record.

The partnership targets Iraq’s 'untapped potential' in digital commerce.

MoneyHash is pushing further into Iraq, teaming up with Baghdad-based fintech Wayl in what looks like a calculated move to simplify payment expansion in one of the region’s more complex markets.

The Dubai-headquartered payment orchestration platform said the partnership is part of its broader strategy to support businesses as they scale across emerging economies. Iraq, with its unique payment habits and regulatory layers, is not exactly a plug-and-play environment. Anyone who has tried to enter a new MENA market knows it can be a bit of a faff at first, different rules, different customer expectations, different infrastructure. Iraq is no exception.

By working with Wayl, MoneyHash is effectively extending its rails into the Iraqi ecosystem. Wayl operates as a local payment solutions provider, checkout engine and merchant of record, helping international and regional companies accept payments and set up operations in the country. Through the collaboration, merchants using MoneyHash will be able to access international card schemes alongside local favourites such as ZainCash and services offered by First Iraqi Bank (FIB), among others.

Nader Abdelrazik, Co-Founder and CEO of MoneyHash, highlighted the importance of local expertise when entering markets like Iraq. Expanding geographically, he said, is not simply about technical integration but about partnering with trusted players who understand the landscape on the ground. The company’s approach has consistently focused on combining infrastructure with regional partnerships to help businesses manage payment complexity with more confidence.

That point, I reckon, hits the nail on the head. Across MENA, payment behaviour can shift dramatically from one border to the next. At Arageek, we often speak with founders who underestimate just how local payments can be, well… until they try to launch. Then reality kicks in.

Wayl’s founder, Ali Ismail, described Iraq as a high-potential market with distinctive payment dynamics. He noted that the partnership with MoneyHash will allow both global and regional merchants to enter the Iraqi market with localised payment solutions and the operational structure required to operate effectively.

Founded in 2021 and based in Baghdad, Wayl acts as a payment aggregator and facilitator while also supporting e-commerce operations within Iraq. It enables merchants to accept Visa and MasterCard payments as well as widely used domestic wallets. As a merchant of record, it also handles some of the regulatory and operational heavy lifting that can otherwise slow expansion. On the flip side, without that kind of local partner, companies often find themselves stuck in compliance loops or struggling with settlement processes that are, frankly, not always straightforward.

MoneyHash positions itself as a payment orchestration layer, integrating multiple payment gateways through a single API, offering smart routing, multi-currency processing and a unified dashboard. The company often draws comparisons between its infrastructure model and AWS’s role in cloud computing, arguing that payments, like cloud services, should be modular and flexible. It’s an ambitious comparison, but in a fragmented region like MENA, flexibility is definately valuable.

And believe it or not, Iraq’s digital commerce scene is showing quiet momentum. While still developing compared with Gulf markets, it represents untapped potential for companies willing to adapt to local realities. Partnerships like this suggest that infrastructure players are preparing the ground now, rather than waiting for the market to mature fully.

For startups eyeing cross-border growth, the message feels clear: don’t go it alone. Find someone who understands the streets as well as the servers. In markets like Iraq, that combination can make the difference between a smooth rollout and a costly learning curve.

🚀 Got exciting news to share?

If you're a startup founder, VC, or PR agency with big updates—funding rounds, product launches 📢, or company milestones 🎉 — AraGeek English wants to hear from you!