THE MIDDLE EAST’S

16. Optasia

Description: Financial services provider for mobile operators and financial institutions
Headquarters: U.A.E.
Date of Establishment: 2012
Founder: Bassim Haidar

Optasia provides mobile financial services such as airtime credit services, micro-lending services, and data monetization services through its AI financial technology platform. It operates in over 36 countries, with a focus on emerging markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, and has access to over 862 million subscribers. Optasia disbursed advances of over $13 billion between 2019 and 2023, of which $3.5 billion was in 2023 alone. Optasia’s average monthly unique users hit 113.7 million as of December 2023, and its valuation exceeded $1 billion.