When American investors think of fintech in emerging markets, they picture apps reaching people locked out of banks. Ahmed Alenazi, founder and CEO of Saudi payments company barq, says that p
When American investors think of fintech in emerging markets, they picture apps reaching people locked out of banks. Ahmed Alenazi, founder and CEO of Saudi payments company barq, says that picture doesn’t fit his home market.
“Saudi is already banked,” Alenazi told TheStreet Roundtable at Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas. “It is not that we came and grabbed something from other players.”
The comments come weeks after barq closed a $329.5 million Series A at a $1.85 billion valuation. A Series A is an early round of outside funding, and the valuation makes barq the kingdom’s newest billion-dollar startup. Noon Investments, Sohar International Bank and M20 Fund took part in the round.
The company launched in 2023 and is licensed by the Saudi Central Bank. It says it has more than 15 million users from over 210 nationalities and has processed more than SAR440 billion ($117.3 billion) since launch. In April, it added cross-border QR payments through Alipay+.
Alenazi was part of stc pay’s founding team and later its CEO.
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Alenazi says barq reaches about 75% of Saudi Arabia’s bankable population and more than 55% of its total population. He says the people barq doesn’t reach are mostly children.
“Saudi is a very young nation, and we have 70% of the population below the age of 35,” he said.
Government data backs that up for citizens. The General Authority for Statistics reported that 69.4% of Saudis were under 35 in 2024.
The figure applies to citizens, not everyone living in the country. Saudis are 55.6% of the kingdom’s 35.3 million residents, the agency estimates.
Some adults are still left out. The World Bank found that 78.84% of adults had an account in 2024, so about one in five did not.
Alenazi argues that Saudi infrastructure actually runs ahead of most of the world. The Saudi Central Bank launched its sarie instant payment system in February 2021. It lets bank customers send money around the clock, and transfers under SAR 20,000 (about $5,333) reach the recipient instantly.
The Federal Reserve’s FedNow service went live in July 2023. The US private sector had The Clearing House’s RTP network from 2017.
Identity checks are simpler too.
“We have only one provider, which is the government,” Alenazi said of know-your-customer checks.
Saudi banks can verify customers through government-approved electronic services. Remote checks run through Nafath, the national digital identity platform.
Consumers have moved with the rails. Electronic payments made up 79% of Saudi retail payments in 2024, up from 70% in 2023, the Saudi Central Bank said.
