Foloosi Secures UAE Central Bank IPA for Category III Retail Payment License

Foloosi has secured In-Principle Approval for a Category III retail payment license from the Central Bank of the UAE, marking a significant regulatory shift for the homegrown fintech. This milestone validates the company’s transition from a payment gateway to a regulated infrastructure provider, offering fintech professionals a glimpse into the UAE’s evolving AI-driven financial landscape.

What was announced

The In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) positions Foloosi to operate under the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) Regulation. This regulatory step is a prerequisite for obtaining a final license, contingent on the company fulfilling specific requirements and conditions set by the CBUAE. Since its inception, the UAE-born company has scaled its operations significantly, now reporting a total payment volume exceeding AED 7 billion and a client base of more than 10,000 merchants across the Emirates.

The announcement also outlines a strategic shift toward what Foloosi describes as "AI-native payment infrastructure." This architecture is designed to process real-time signals from transactions, including device intelligence, merchant patterns, and settlement information. Key components of this platform include AI-powered transaction intelligence for pattern recognition, real-time fraud analysis, and intelligent payment orchestration to optimize routing and performance. Furthermore, the system aims to automate reconciliation and settlement processes, providing merchants with greater visibility into their funds throughout the payment lifecycle. Over time, the company intends for this infrastructure to support agentic payment systems, where authorized AI agents can interact with the payment stack under secure protocols and permissions.

Foloosi’s current suite of products spans online payment acceptance, payment links, invoicing, subscriptions, and QR payments. It also provides hardware-integrated solutions such as point-of-sale (POS) systems and "Tap to Phone" technology, which enables merchants to accept contactless payments directly on mobile devices.

"Receiving In-Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the UAE is an important milestone for Foloosi and reflects the progress we have made in building a strong, secure and scalable payments business in the UAE. We started Foloosi with a simple ambition: to build payment technology in the UAE that could serve businesses of every size. Today, after processing more than AED 7 billion in payments and serving over 10,000 merchants, we are entering the next chapter of that journey. Our focus now is to complete the remaining regulatory requirements and continue building Foloosi into a trusted payments infrastructure company for the UAE."

Omar Bin Brek, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Foloosi

The companies involved

Foloosi is a payments technology company founded in the United Arab Emirates by Omar Bin Brek and Mohan K. The firm has established itself as a significant player in the regional fintech ecosystem, focusing on providing UAE merchants with tools to manage digital payments across both online and physical storefronts. Starting as a specialized online payment gateway, the company has broadened its service suite to include merchant payment operations and e-commerce solutions.

The company’s growth has been recognized on a national level, with Foloosi being named as part of the UAE Future 100, an initiative highlighting companies that contribute to the country’s future economic sectors. As an independent entity, Foloosi has focused on building proprietary technology specifically for the UAE market, positioning itself as a local alternative to global payment processors. Its current trajectory involves moving beyond simple transaction processing toward becoming a comprehensive payments infrastructure provider, integrating advanced data analytics and security protocols into its core offering. The company plans to continue investing in artificial intelligence, fraud and risk technology, and payment operations as it works with the Central Bank toward final licensing.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously tracked Foloosi’s expansion and its collaborations with global financial giants. In May 2023, the publication reported on the partnership between Mastercard and Foloosi launch Click to Pay in UAE. This initiative was designed to streamline the checkout experience for consumers by eliminating the need for manual card entry and password requirements, utilizing industry-standard automation to enhance security and conversion rates for UAE merchants. This prior collaboration highlighted Foloosi's role in bringing international payment standards to the local market, setting the stage for its current regulatory advancements and the development of its own intelligent infrastructure. The integration of Click to Pay was a key step in Foloosi's effort to reduce friction in the digital payment lifecycle for UAE-based businesses.

What this means

This move by the CBUAE signals a tightening of the regulatory net around fintechs while simultaneously providing a clear path for homegrown players to institutionalize. By moving toward a Category III license, Foloosi is positioning itself to compete more directly with established legacy banks and international aggregators. The emphasis on "AI-native" infrastructure suggests that the industry is moving past the era of simple digital connectivity. The real competitive pressure now shifts to how effectively payment providers can use transaction data to provide value-added services like fraud prevention and automated reconciliation. The challenge for the sector will be maintaining this intelligence without compromising the speed or security that merchants demand in an increasingly crowded market.