Western Union Acquires 15% of Saudi Stc Pay 

Western Union acquired 15% of Saudi mobile subsidiary "Stc Pay" for $200 million, the mobile company announced in a statement today.

Stc Pay mobile, launched in 2018, offers consumers various digital financial services including money transfer services, payments using QR codes, and utility bill payments, while internationally, money transfers are operated by Western Union.

Western Union, which has a pretty good idea of data, growth, and potential of the Stc Pay had a good enough reason for the acquisition, as the two companies have been working together Since 2019.

Stc Pay, valued at $1.33 billion (SAR 5 billion), has 4.5 million users, which makes the largest mobile wallet in the Middle East & North Africa, emerging strongly during the pandemic as banks in the kingdom have failed to innovate.

The Saudi company is one of the first companies to receive a fin-tech license from The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority earlier in 2020.

It also launched a partnership with Visa that allows users to make online and offline payments at Visa merchant service globally. The tech company started up with $26 million (SAR 100 million) in 2017 and had received $80 million in 2019.

It is noteworthy that Western Union is an American worldwide financial services and communications company, headquartered Colorado.