Saudi Arabia-based fintech PayTabs has announced the acquisition of a 100% stake in Turkey-based social commerce platform Paymes. The announcement follows the company’s acquisition of Saudi Arabia-based Digital Pay in November 2022, and under the terms of the acquisition, Paymes is set on serving as PayTabs social commerce platform to enable instant payments receival for Middle East and Africa-based freelancers, artisans, consultants, home based business owners, personal trainers, and micro vendors.

The announcement is in line with PayTabs’ mission of improving the payment habits and experiences of merchants across their lifecycle. Micro merchants have been representing an underserved segment of the social commerce ecosystem, and Paymes aims to enable merchants to enter the payment market by offering them a social commerce platform that allows them to create web stores and sell online with minimum effort. With the companies having collaborated to launch social commerce tools in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt, as per the press release, PayTabs acquisition of Paymes marks the next step in PayTabs mission of powering the global ecommerce economy through means of a ‘super’ payments’ platform.

Impact of the acquisition within social commerce With the company having operated digital payments in the MENA region for a decade, the Paymes merge is set to open new social media platforms of the likes of Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram to an increased number of merchants that trade and sell via social media but have no legitimate way of funds’ collection. The acquisition is set to offer PayTabs the opportunity for growth and expansion of their payment footprint within the Eurasian markets, with the Paymes platform providing market differentiators of the likes of live cashier inventory management and Paymes Reels. When it comes to Paymes and its presence in Turkey, the acquisition is believed to help the company set itself as a ‘social commerce processor’, as it is going to capitalise on PayTabs’ market presence to advance digital and social payments within the MENA region.

One of the key benefits associated with Paymes is that it enables users to have a mini ecommerce webstore set up, the ‘Paymes shop’, which can be customised and branded, thus saving merchants additional costs that would have been otherwise invested in having their websites designed and branded by professional agencies. This feature alone is thought to empower the segment of micro home-based businesses that sell over social media platforms to participate in the economy, thus contributing to household incomes’ growth through social commerce. Under the acquisition agreement, Paymes will expand its offering to cover the markets PayTabs operates in within the MENA region, in addition to the support to be offered through their social commerce products.

PayTabs officials stated that payments are a commodity and the company’s mission is that of ensuring that they are made easily available to every customer segment, the acquisition marking the consolidation of their position as a payment solutions provider that offers a payment orchestration platform to extend payments solutions to businesses of all sizes across the globe. Paymes representatives have stated that they plan on launching a variety of spin-offs on specific verticals based on the number of merchants and knowledge gained from social commerce, with the company also developing payment mechanisms through live broadcasts that reels in social commerce. A Facebook commerce partner, Paymes aims to improve merchants’ cashflow by providing solutions of the likes of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), consumer finance, and a Paymes card.

Furthermore, as per the information found in the press release, Paymes is set to expand in 2023 in new markets: Uzbekistan, Jordan, and Georgia. Details on the valuation of the acquisition deal have remained undisclosed. .