Ottu and Mastercard Team Up to Revolutionise GCC Digital Payments

Editorial Team

Last updated 16-12-2025

3 min

Ottu and Mastercard join forces to ease digital payment processes in the GCC.

Mastercard Merchant Cloud offers access to over 200 acquirers and 110 million acceptance points.

The collaboration streamlines payment integration, fostering quicker local and international transactions.

Ottu's Smart Router tech enhances transaction success rates, a favourite among regional startups.

This partnership aims to scale the digital payments landscape, benefiting both global and regional firms.

Ottu has joined forces with Mastercard in a move that could make life a lot easier for businesses trying to keep up with the fast‑moving world of digital payments across the GCC. The agreement centres on Mastercard Merchant Cloud, which essentially gives companies one doorway into more than 200 acquirers and over 110 million acceptance points worldwide. For firms operating in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, that means quicker access to both local and international payment methods without the usual faff of juggling multiple integrations.

When I first saw something similar rolled out for a startup in Kuwait a few years back, the founders were chuffed to bits because it cut their onboarding time almost in half. So I reckon many enterprises in the region will welcome this sort of streamlining, especially given how fragmented payment options can feel on the ground.

Ottu’s CEO, Talal AlAwadhi, said the collaboration reflects a shared ambition to rethink the region’s digital payments ecosystem, adding that the combined strengths of both sides should help businesses grow with more confidence. On the flip side, Mastercard seems equally focused on strengthening its local relevance. Maria Parpou, Executive Vice President for Mastercard Merchant Cloud, highlighted that merchants are increasingly asking for payment methods tailored to each market, and offering all of that through a single integration hits the nail spot on.

The Merchant Cloud platform also brings in tools that many enterprises usually have to bolt on separately, such as fraud detection, network tokenisation and stronger authentication. And believe it or not, these details really matter when you’re dealing with sectors like travel or real estate—areas where a failed transaction can snowball into a very unhappy customer.

As for Ottu, its Online Payments Management Solution (OPMS) is already known for giving businesses a unified dashboard and customisable payment flows. Its Smart Router tech, which automatically picks the best route for each transaction, has been a quiet favourite among some founders I’ve spoken with around the region—well… I mean, anything that boosts success rates while cutting costs is hard to argue with, even if the setup can be a bit of a hasstle at first.

All in all, the partnership signals a push toward a more inclusive and scalable digital payments landscape in the GCC. And for those of us at Arageek who spend a lot of time cheering on MENA startups, developments like this feel like another step toward levelling the playing field for both global and regional players.

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