Egypt’s NowPay enters Saudi market with $20m Tas’heel joint venture

Egyptian fintech NowPay has entered the Saudi market through a new joint venture with Tas’heel, launching a platform aimed at providing Shariah-compliant payroll and employee financial wellness services across the Kingdom.

The venture, called NowAccess, has been established with a $20 million investment from Tas’heel, which will hold a 75% stake, while NowPay owns the remaining 25%. The partnership combines NowPay’s payroll-linked financial technology with Tas’heel’s nationwide network of more than 310 service locations to distribute services to employers and employees.

The move follows a memorandum of understanding agreed earlier this year and comes as Saudi Arabia continues to see rising demand for locally compliant payroll and employee benefits solutions. According to United International Holding, Tas’heel’s parent company, NowAccess is intended to operationalise that agreement and scale services quickly within the Saudi enterprise sector.

NowAccess will offer payroll administration, HR integrations and salary-linked financial tools, including earned wage access, designed to meet Saudi regulatory requirements and Shariah standards. The companies said the focus is on reducing payroll friction for employers while giving employees access to structured financial services linked to their salaries.

The $20 million investment will be used to build a Saudi-based engineering and operations team and to localise products for compliance, payments infrastructure and customer support. Initial market entry will involve pilot programmes with employers, followed by a phased rollout across sectors that already prioritise payroll benefits.