PayLater Lands $10M Seed to Accelerate Qatar’s BNPL Revolution

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 29-01-2026

3 min

PayLater closed a USD 10 million seed round, “one of the largest” seen in Qatar.

BNPL has moved from a “nice extra” to core financial infrastructure under tighter regulation.

Funding will support expansion into travel, education, healthcare, and stronger credit assessment tools.

PayLater has processed over QAR 300 million and attracted more than 80,000 users.

It is Qatar’s first central bank-licensed BNPL, offering a Shari’a-compliant, fee-free model.

PayLater has just wrapped up a USD 10 million seed round, and for Qatar’s startup scene, that’s no small potatoes. The round was led by LuLu Alternative Investments Portfolio, with Qatar Development Bank and KBN Holding also on the cap table, joined by a handful of angel investors. All told, it’s being talked about as one of the largest seed-stage raises the country has seen, which says a lot about where digital payments are heading in the market.

I still remember a chat at a founders’ meetup a couple of years back, complaining that flexible payment options in the region were, well… a bit of a faff. Fast forward to now, and Buy Now, Pay Later has gone firmly mainstream. From an Arageek reader’s point of view, this feels spot on: BNPL is shifting from a “nice extra” to core financial infrastructure, especially as regulators in Qatar tighten frameworks under the watch of the central bank.

The fresh capital will help PayLater push deeper into sectors like travel, education and healthcare, while also rolling out new features built on more advanced credit assessment tools. The idea is simple enough: reach more users, give merchants better conversions, and plug more smoothly into e-commerce platforms as well as physical retail across the country. On the flip side, it’s the discipline around risk and compliance that will really be tested as they scale, not just the tech.

Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Delaimi, co-founder of PayLater, said the funding reflects genuine demand for flexible yet responsible financial services in Qatar. He added that the company is building more than a payment option, pointing instead to infrastructure that helps consumers manage spending while giving merchants a real boost in sales growth. The ambition, he noted, is to become the go-to BNPL choice in the local market.

The numbers behind the story are eye-catching. In under a year, PayLater has processed more than QAR 300 million in instalment transactions and signed up over 80,000 users. It has also lined up a QAR 100 million credit facility with Qatar Islamic Bank and Al Rayan Bank, which should give it decent firepower for the next phase. I reckon that banking backing is just as telling as the equity round itself.

Believe it or not, PayLater is also Qatar’s first BNPL platform licensed by the central bank, operating within local rules and offering a Shari’a-compliant model with no interest or hidden fees. I’m not a fan of hype for hype’s sake, but this raise definately signals a maturing ecosystem, where regulation and innovation are finally pulling in the same direction. And if that continues, founders across the MENA region will be chuffed to bits watching how Qatar plays its cards.

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