Abu Dhabi's Astra Tech unit gets $500m funding from Citi

Quantix Technology Projects, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based FinTech Astra Tech, has received $500 million in funding from Citi to boost its financial services offering.

The asset-backed securitisation financing is “among the largest provided to a UAE FinTech company to date”, the companies said at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week event on Wednesday.

Quantix, which received a finance company licence from the UAE Central Bank this year, will use the funds to support its CashNow consumer lending platform, it said. The licence allows Quantix, by extension Astra Tech, to offer lending, credit and microfinancing services.

“The FinTech sector is undergoing a rapid transformation, attracting significant global investment,” said Tariq bin Hendi, board member and managing director of Astra Tech.

“The GCC, and particularly the UAE, continues to exhibit strong growth despite global macroeconomic challenges. This financing from Citi allows Quantix and AstraTech to expand the Ultra app ecosystem.”

Astra Tech, which previously raised $500 million in funding in a round led by Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company G42, last year, acquired video calling app Botim.

Its Ultra app, developed under Botim, operates in 155 countries and has more than 150 million users, providing voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calling as well as international money transfers, bill payments and UAE visa services.

Astra Tech, whose portfolio also includes FinTech platform PayBy and UAE-based home services app Rizek, aims to “build an all-in-one platform that simplifies and empowers consumers' financial decisions, whether it’s securing loans or managing everyday finances”, Mr bin Hendi said.

FinTech companies in the Mena region have been increasingly attracting funding from global investors amid growing technology adoption in the region.

In December last year, Mubadala-backed buy now, pay later platform Tabby received $700 million in debt financing in the form of receivables securitisation from JP Morgan. The Riyadh-based start-up also extended its series D funding round with $250 million from Saudi Arabia's Hassana Investment Company, US firm Soros Capital Management and Saudi Venture Capital.

Saudi Arabia's BNPL platform Tamara also raised $340 million in December last year in a series C round jointly led by SNB Capital, a unit of the kingdom’s largest bank, and Public Investment Fund-owned Sanabil Investments. Other participants included Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital and Impulse, who joined existing investors such as Coatue, Endeavor Catalyst and Checkout.com.

The Mena region had the second-highest growth rate for FinTech venture capital funding between 2015 and 2023, with an annual average growth of 33 per cent, the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company said in a report in September.

The volume of funding in the region tripled between 2020 and 2023 and the Mena was the only region to see funding growth between 2021 and 2023, it said.

Globally, the FinTech industry has become the second-most prolific creator of unicorns – start-ups that exceed a $1 billion valuation – just behind enterprise software. As of 2023, approximately 362 FinTechs globally have reached unicorn valuation, and nearly 150 FinTech unicorns have realised an exit, the report said.