Talabat Taps du Pay for Streamlined Fleet Payments Across the UAE

Talabat is deepening its work with du Pay in the UAE, naming the fintech platform as the digital wallet and payment partner for its fleet partners. In simple words, riders working with those fleet partners will now have one place to receive, manage and use their money, which should cut down a bit of the faff that often comes with juggling different payment channels.

The agreement was marked at a signing ceremony at talabat’s office, where Roberto Mancone, chief executive of du Pay, and Simonida Subotic, talabat’s Vice President and Managing Director for the UAE, were present. The move builds on what both companies describe as strong uptake of du Pay among riders already working through talabat, and it pushes the partnership into a new stage.

For fleet partners, the practical change is quite spot on: instead of handling rider payments through several providers, they can use one wallet solution. That, in turn, is meant to make payments simpler for riders and open the door to more financial services. Around the startup world in MENA, I’ve often seen how something as basic as getting paid smoothly can make a real difference to workers and operators alike, especially in fast-moving sectors like delivery where scale comes first and systems catch up later... well, I mean, that’s usually how it goes.

The du Pay wallet comes with an IBAN for each account and a free digital debit card that includes cashback on spending. Riders can also access cash loans, send money abroad, pay bills, top up mobile balance, and use the card for day-to-day spending. One detail that stands out is the 50 per cent extra balance on du prepaid recharges, a small but quite specific incentive that shows this is not only about salary distribution.

Mancone said reaching thousands of riders through du Pay every month shows the strength of the existing tie-up. He added that being chosen as talabat’s official digital payment solution for fleet partners reflects trust in the service and reliability built so far. He also said the aim now is to keep scaling, make it easier for riders to receive and manage money, and help businesses handle payments across large and varied workforces more efficiently.

Subotic said riders remain central to talabat’s operations and that the company is constantly looking for ways to make everyday life more convenient for them. According to her, the partnership has already allowed riders to receive their monthly payments digitally from employers, meaning talabat’s fleet partners, while this latest phase gives those partners a more streamlined way to manage payouts and gives riders easier access to financial services through a single wallet.

That said, the bigger picture matters too. du Pay says it now has more than one million registered customers, and this talabat arrangement underlines its push to serve not only individual users but also businesses that need a single digital payment channel for distributed teams. I reckon this is where the real value may lie, because payroll for mobile workforces is still not a glamorous problem, but it is a crucial one and, frankly, not many people talk about it enough.

du Pay is the digital financial services arm of du, officially Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, and it is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. The company says users can sign up in about a minute using a UAE mobile number and Emirates ID, with no account opening fees, no monthly charges and no minimum balance. Alongside transfers and merchant payments, it is also building out loans and investment products as part of a broader ecosystem.

Talabat, founded in Kuwait in 2004 and now headquartered in Dubai, operates across the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. As of December 2025, it said it was serving more than seven million monthly active users. The company also completed its IPO on the Dubai Financial Market in December 2024, and as a subsidiary of Delivery Hero SE it continues to tap wider global expertise while growing its regional footprint.

For readers at Arageek who watch how infrastructure shapes entrepreneurship, this may not sound like the flashiest annoucement of the week. On the flip side, it shows how fintech and platform businesses in the UAE are trying to solve everyday friction at scale, and believe it or not, those quieter operational upgrades are often the ones that stick.

🚀 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!

✉️ Send Us Your Story 👇

https://en.arageek.com/send-us-your-story-or-a-news-tip