Foloosi, a UAE-born payments technology company, has received In-Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates for a Category III licence under the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation. The approval marks a significant step toward final licensing, subject to remaining regulatory conditions. Having already processed more than AED 7 billion in payment volume and served over 10,000 merchants, Foloosi is entering a new phase of regulated growth.
Regulatory Progress and Market Traction
Foloosi was founded by Omar Bin Brek and Mohan K and has built its business around helping UAE merchants accept and manage digital payments across online and in-person channels. The In-Principle Approval is an important regulatory step, though the company must still satisfy the Central Bank's remaining requirements and conditions. The company's payment volume now exceeds AED 7 billion, reflecting substantial adoption across the UAE merchant community.
Expansion Beyond Online Payments
Foloosi began as an online payment gateway and has since expanded into a broader merchant payments platform. Its offering now includes payment links, invoicing, subscriptions, recurring payments, QR payments, Tap to Phone, point-of-sale solutions, e-commerce and merchant payment operations. This evolution positions the company as a versatile infrastructure provider for businesses of varying sizes.
Leadership Perspective
Omar Bin Brek, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, described the approval as a milestone reflecting Foloosi's progress in building a secure and scalable payments business. He said the company started with a simple ambition to create payment technology in the UAE capable of serving businesses of every size. After surpassing AED 7 billion in processed payments and serving more than 10,000 merchants, Foloosi is now focused on completing remaining regulatory requirements and becoming a trusted payments infrastructure provider.
Building AI-Native Payment Infrastructure
Foloosi plans to make artificial intelligence a foundational layer of its future payment architecture rather than a standalone feature. Every payment generates signals such as transaction behaviour, device intelligence, merchant patterns, payment method performance, operational events, risk indicators and settlement information. The company's long-term vision is to build infrastructure capable of interpreting these signals in real time.
Intelligence Across the Payment Lifecycle
The platform is being designed around several intelligent capabilities. These include AI-powered transaction intelligence that identifies unusual patterns in real time, real-time fraud and risk intelligence that analyses payment and behavioural signals, and intelligent payment orchestration to improve transaction performance. Foloosi also envisions merchant intelligence, automated reconciliation and settlement intelligence, and future agentic payment infrastructure where authorised AI agents interact with payment systems through secure controls.
Built in the UAE for the UAE
The In-Principle Approval represents an important step toward Foloosi's next phase, and the company will continue working with the Central Bank to fulfil the applicable requirements for final licensing. Alongside its regulatory journey, Foloosi plans to keep investing in payment infrastructure, artificial intelligence, fraud and risk technology, merchant intelligence, security and payment operations. The company was also recognised as part of the UAE Future 100, reflecting its role among entities contributing to the country's future economic sectors.
A Shift Toward Intelligent Payments
Foloosi's stated vision is that payments were once digital and are now becoming intelligent. The company is building AI-native payment infrastructure specifically for the UAE market and its evolving merchant needs. This approach aims to embed intelligence across the payment lifecycle rather than treating AI as an isolated product feature.
Foloosi's In-Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the UAE signals a maturing payments platform with growing regulatory standing and substantial transaction volume. The company's evolution from an online payment gateway to a multi-channel merchant payments provider reflects broader demand for integrated digital payment infrastructure in the UAE. With a focus on AI-native capabilities and continued investment in security, fraud prevention and merchant intelligence, Foloosi is positioning itself for the next stage of its growth in the UAE's financial ecosystem.