Astra Tech acquires PayBy

Astra Tech, a technology development and investment business with roots in the UAE, has purchased PayBy, one of the biggest and most creative fintech startups in the country. This purchase comes after the firm recently acquired Rizek, a platform for on-demand personal and domestic services.

The PayBy purchase is a significant strategic step for Astra towards its goal of building an “ultra platform,” a ground-breaking, interconnected digital environment that is anticipated to address the rising issue of super app fatigue. Astra is currently raising $500 million in funding.

Under the leadership of Astra Founder and CEO, serial entrepreneur Abdallah Abu Sheikh, PayBy’s acquisition will enable a seamless and cashless payment solution for customers, merchants, and businesses by bringing sophisticated proprietary payment technologies and financial services to Astra’s ultra platform.

More than 2 million users and thousands of active businesses are a result of PayBy’s rapid growth over the past two years. More than 600 million AED worth of transactions had been made as of May 2022.

Speaking on the acquisition, Abu Sheikh noted: “As we integrate PayBy’s technologies, solutions and teams into Astra’s ultra platform, our speed and ability to supercharge our services with industry-leading payments and money transfer solutions has accelerated immensely.”

In order to create an ultra platform that will revolutionise how people live their lives by enabling them to significantly reduce the amount of time they spend on necessary daily tasks like payments, transfers, and transactions, Astra plans to acquire, repurpose, and combine already established and sector-leading leading platforms.