NowPay Raises $20M to Expand Payroll Solutions in Saudi Arabia

Saudi-based NowPay has secured USD 20 million in fresh funding as it pushes ahead with plans to scale its payroll and financial wellness platform and deepen its footprint across the region. The company, founded in 2019, has been quietly building tools that sit where employers and employees actually feel the pinch: salaries, access to wages, and day‑to‑day financial wellbeing.

NowPay’s offering covers payroll processing, earned wage access, and financial wellness services for enterprises across MENA. In plain terms, it helps companies pay people on time while giving staff more control over when and how they access their money. I’ve lost count of how many founders around the region have told me payroll is a bit of a faff when teams start to grow, so this kind of infrastructure tends to hit the mark quickly.

With the new investment, NowPay is gearing up to launch operations in Saudi Arabia through a joint venture called NowAccess. The venture is being set up with United International Holding Company, better known in the market through Tas’heel. According to Mostafa Ashour, CEO and co-founder of NowPay, partnering with Tas’heel opens the door to a high-growth market while leaning on strong local know-how to get things moving faster.

The funding won’t just sit on the balance sheet. Part of it is earmarked for product development, building out teams, and handling go-to-market execution, which, as anyone who has tried to crack Saudi at scale will tell you, is spot on but not exactly simple. Having a local partner with operational muscle can make all the difference.

From Tas’heel’s side, Mohamed Galal, eXtra managing director and CEO and acting CEO of Tas’heel, framed the move as a strategic expansion into payroll-linked, Shariah-compliant financial products. He noted that the launch of NowAccess builds on Tas’heel’s consumer finance foundations while broadening what it can offer both employers and employees in the Kingdom.

NowAccess will focus on payroll administration and processing services in Saudi Arabia, blending NowPay’s fintech infrastructure with Tas’heel’s on-the-ground presence. It’s positioned as a long-term collaboration aimed at driving innovation across fintech and HR tech locally. I reckon this is where things get interesting, because payroll data often becomes the backbone for a whole suite of financial products later on… well, you know?

At Arageek, stories like this tend to resonate. Many startups across MENA start with a clever idea, but scaling responsibly means sorting out the “boring” backend early. On the flip side, I’m not a fan of partnerships in name only; execution is what counts. That said, this one feels more than window dressing, and if it lands as planned, founders and employees alike could be chuffed to bits by what comes next, even if the real test will be in the details over the next year or so.

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