Multi-currency and multi-lingual payment gateway for SMEs Telr – founded and headed in the region by ex-Paypal MENA managing director Elias Ghanem – has announced its merger with payment processing company Innovate Payments.
Through this merger, Telr will strenghten its payment gateway, unified logistics and payments APIs offerings, alongside its cash management solutions. “Telr’s ambition to revolutionize the payments landscape across all emerging markets complements Innovate Payments’ strong presence in the UAE and advanced platform. The merger will boost our market growth and ambitious expansion plan to accelerate e-commerce adoption in emerging markets”, says in a statement Ghanem, now CEO and Co-Founder of Telr.
“Innovate Payments is the fifth payment platform we have launched since 1997, and is the first PCI DSS Level 1 Certified Gateway in the region. Merging with Telr will allow us to develop new products and strengthen our presence in the UAE and beyond,” comments Andy O’Sullivan, head of operations and co-founder of Innovate Payments.
The Telr group is unique is headed by a management team coming from PayPal, Visa, WorldPay, Motorola and Nokia. Its merchants include e-commerce website Namshi, mobile taxi app Careem, and meal plan service Kcal along with government and semi-government agencies. Meanwhile, Innovate Payments has been processing online transactions for UAE merchants since 2012. “Merging with Telr gives Innovate Payments the ability to scale-up our operations, accelerating our expansion into new markets and expanding our existing product-sets,” adds O’Sullivan.
Telr will initially focus on supporting the exponential growth of e-commerce activity currently happening in the UAE and the GCC, with aggressive expansion plans across the MENA from it’s Dubai Hub as well as in Southeast Asia through its headquarters in Singapore.
* PCI DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
