UK-headquartered fintech, Total Processing, may be a relative new kid on the block in the region, having just opened its first office outside of Europe with a new base in Dubai, but the company has lofty ambitions to disrupt the payments industry across the Middle East and North Africa.
Cameron Lee, director and head of strategy at Total Processing, told Arabian Business Dubai was always considered very much a ‘hotspot’ when it came to planning the company’s international expansion.
He said: “The market dynamics of Dubai, it’s very fast-paced growth, the country is investing in digital and it’s on the agenda of a lot of business owners. The market is dominated by legacy players and so there’s a big technology play for us to disrupt the market with a really compelling tech solution.
“Something that’s great about Dubai is that it fosters that innovation and disruption. We’ve seen a lot of technology companies use Dubai as a base to start that Middle East venture. It’s proven quite lucrative for them. As a business we saw Dubai as a place to start disrupting the Middle East and it’s start off pretty well.”
Founded in 2015, and located in the heart of the emirate’s business district, Total Processing is one of the UK’s fastest growing fintech companies, delivering solutions to more than 3,000 clients and recording 100 percent year-on-year growth since inception.
Following a £5 million investment from BOOST&Co last year, the company said it has seen a triple digit increase in revenue, bolstered its headcount with over 30 new employees, and relocated its UK headquarters to larger premises in Manchester.
“As a business we’ve seen a massive shift from brick-and-mortar retail to online. Covid has accelerated that and now digital is on the agenda of all these big companies and as part of digital people are talking about payments,” said Lee. “We’ve got a fantastic base within Europe but we were looking to international markets and something that really excited us was the growth of the MENA region.”
Total Processing’s co-founder Alex Leigh will head up operations in the region, alongside new appointments Danny Makin, who joins as regional head (MENA), and Alex Morris as head of sales (MENA).
Lee said: “We see ourselves being a major player in the region for payments. It’s ripe for disruption, the market is growing.
“It’s our plan to expand across the whole of the GCC. It’s our over-arching aim to be the most customer-focused payments system in the world and that means operating globally. We’re already in talks with clients in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, a whole host of countries across the MENA region, it’s just that Dubai has been chosen as our base to start our expansion from.”
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