Barq, A Digital Wallet For Businesses In Saudi Arabia, Partners With Global Fintech Thunes

barq, a digital wallet for consumers and businesses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Thunes, a global money movement innovator, announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to expand international money transfer opportunities for barq’s users.

In the partnership, Thunes will provide its Pay and Accept cross-border payment solutions to barq, enabling its customers “to send money in real-time to over 4 billion bank accounts and 3 billion mobile wallets in 130+ countries, while monitoring fund movement at all times.”

barq will also be able to collect funds quickly and affordably “from hundreds of payment methods globally, without the need for intermediaries or additional integrations.”

Saudi Arabia’s need for cross-border payments “has grown in recent years, fueled by increasing numbers of expatriates” and workers from Southeast Asia and other regions.

This new service highlights the “importance of inclusive and cost-effective international payments to support growth across the Kingdom.”

This partnership comes as Saudi Arabia’s digital payments market “scales rapidly, following the Kingdom’s target to increase cashless transactions to 70% by 2025 as part of its Vision 2030.”

Thamer Alharbi, Director of International Partnerships at barq said:

“We’re pleased to partner with Thunes to bolster barq’s network, enabling us to provide more critical services to businesses and consumers, and support the needs of the growing expatriate and migrant community across the Kingdom. We are excited to be part of the remarkable advancements in fintech within the Kingdom recently and look forward to seeing further growth across the sector in years to come.”

Ahmad Yaacoub, Country Head for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at Thunes said:

“Our partnership with barq shows Thunes commitment to provide seamless cross border payment solutions to businesses in Saudi Arabia and beyond. Thunes keeps expanding in the Middle East region as demand for transparent and real-time payments gathers force.”

As noted in the update, barq is Saudi Arabia’s latest innovative financial technology app.

Developed by young Saudi talents, barraq obtained its license “from the Saudi Central Bank in January 2024. barraq aims to provide financial products and services that will transform daily life and fulfill users’ exact needs while combining both convenience and joy at every interaction.”

As mentioned in the announcement, Thunes is a global payment innovator “enabling businesses to move money in real-time and in full transparency.”

They empower our customers to pay and get paid “by anyone, anywhere, and however they prefer, closing the gap between payment systems worldwide.”

With Thunes, large, medium and small companies “can Accept 550+ payment methods, and Pay to over 4 billion bank accounts and 3 billion mobile wallets.”

Thunes currently facilitates payments in 85 currencies “across 130+ countries, using local payment methods, including 120 mobile wallets like PayPal, M-Pesa and Airtel, for gig economy giants like Uber and Deliveroo, super-apps like Grab and WeChat, IMTOs, Fintechs, PSPs and banks.”

Headquartered in Singapore, Thunes has “a presence in 13 locations, including Barcelona, Beijing, Dubai, London, Manila, Nairobi, Paris, San Francisco and Sao Paulo.”