barq and Mastercard Signal Broader Payments Push at Money20/20 Middle East
The Saudi fintech and the card network, both sponsors of the Riyadh event, say they are exploring wider work in payments and digital financial services.
Nadia Mansour Nadia Mansour covers fintech across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted -- digital banking, payments licences and the startups building around them. nadia@anecdoted.com
barq used a LinkedIn post to say it and Mastercard are looking at fresh opportunities in payments and digital financial services. The two firms made the statement during Money20/20 Middle East 2026 in Riyadh, an event both are backing as strategic sponsors.
The talks widen a tie-up that began in September 2024, when barq took on Mastercard Gateway technology so that its merchants and consumers could accept payments. Under an expanded arrangement, barq's digital products would sit alongside Mastercard's global payments reach. The stated goals are more efficient and flexible solutions, a better experience for users, and tools that answer shifting demands from consumers and companies.
barq brings scale to the table. The company holds a licence from the Saudi Central Bank issued in January 2024 and launched in July that year. It has issued more than 6.5 million digital payment cards, handled over 500 million transactions, and reached SAR 73 billion in total transaction volume. Ahmed Alenazi founded it.
Recognition has followed. At this year's Money20/20 Middle East, barq collected three Visa awards, among them fastest-growing fintech across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Mastercard is not barq's only partner. Over the past two years the firm has assembled a broader network: Thunes for cross-border remittances, TerraPay for international money transfers, and iPiD for payee verification. It also works with Alipay+, through which it became the first partner in the Middle East to switch on outbound cross-border QR payments.
That mix is the interesting part. A card network supplies acceptance; remittance and QR partners supply corridors. Holding both means barq is not betting its growth on a single route, and it puts the domestic card base it built in under two years to work outside Saudi Arabia. The Mastercard discussions sit inside that approach rather than replacing it.
Neither company disclosed terms, timelines or specific products. For now the announcement is a statement of intent, published by barq on LinkedIn.
The image accompanying this report was edited by Fintech News UAE and based on a photograph by barq via LinkedIn.
