TotalPay, an Indian fintech firm, has received approval from the Saudi Central Bank, known as SAMA, to operate as an e-commerce payment technical service provider in the Kingdom. The approval allows TotalPay to launch payment gateway and payment orchestration services to businesses across Saudi Arabia, marking its formal entry into one of the Gulf’s fastest-growing digital payments markets.
A first for an Indian fintech in the Kingdom
TotalPay says the approval makes it the first Indian firm to receive authorisation as an e-commerce payment technical service provider in Saudi Arabia. That distinction matters in a market where SAMA has historically approved a tight circle of regional and Western payment providers, and it signals a widening of the Kingdom’s fintech licensing pool to include firms building their track record elsewhere in Asia.
Founded in 2022, TotalPay has served more than 1,500 businesses and processed over a billion dollars in transactions since its launch. The company plans to invest in technology, strategic partnerships, and scalable payment infrastructure as it expands across Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East and Africa, building on a base it has already established in the UAE.
What the approval covers
The SAMA license permits TotalPay to offer payment gateway services, which let merchants accept online payments, alongside payment orchestration tools designed to help businesses manage multiple payment methods and providers through a single technology layer. In practice, this positions TotalPay to compete with established Saudi and regional players that already offer similar merchant-facing infrastructure.
TotalPay’s co-founders, Akif Mohsin and Rahim Pattarkadavan, described the approval as marking the next phase of the company’s regional expansion, crediting their team’s work throughout the licensing process and acknowledging SAMA’s guidance along the way.
Riding Saudi Arabia’s cashless transition
The approval arrives as Saudi Arabia accelerates its shift toward a cashless economy under Vision 2030. Electronic payments have steadily displaced cash across the retail sector in recent years, and SAMA has continued expanding its roster of licensed payment providers to support that transition. The Kingdom’s e-commerce market has grown quickly alongside this shift, with rising smartphone penetration and a young, digitally engaged population driving consistent double-digit growth in online retail.
For merchants operating in Saudi Arabia, an additional licensed payment orchestration provider offers more choice in how they route transactions, manage costs, and reduce payment failures. TotalPay’s technology is built around smart routing that automatically selects the most efficient payment path for a given transaction, a feature aimed at improving reliability for businesses processing high volumes of online payments.
A broader regional expansion play
TotalPay’s Saudi approval fits into a wider pattern of fintech firms treating the Kingdom as a priority market rather than an afterthought within Gulf expansion plans. Saudi Arabia’s payments regulatory framework has matured considerably, and SAMA’s willingness to license firms with proven track records outside the traditional Gulf and Western fintech corridor suggests the Kingdom is casting a wider net as it works to diversify its digital payments ecosystem.
For TotalPay, Saudi Arabia represents a logical next step after the UAE, and the company has signalled plans to deepen partnerships with local banks, financial institutions, and technology providers as it builds out its Saudi operations. Whether it can meaningfully compete with entrenched regional providers will likely depend on how quickly it can convert its licensing win into merchant adoption, particularly among businesses looking for more flexible, multi-provider payment routing as Saudi Arabia’s e-commerce sector continues its rapid climb.
