SAMA’s strategic initiatives to support the fast growing fintech ecosystem across KSA during the reporting period resulted in the establishment of over 200 fintech companies, a more-than-doubling YoY growth of the sector in 2023. This highly competitive market set the backdrop for Al Rajhi’s fintech subsidiary Neoleap to continue its strong performance from the previous year, and meet the exponentially growing expectations of financial institutions, merchants (B2B) and customers (B2C) with fintech solutions that solve existing and emerging market challenges.

2023 in numbers

Navigating an overcrowded and price-sensitive market required Neoleap to strategically approach time-to-market in new product development, resulting in low product activation in 2023. Beyond the fintech competitors, the subsidiary was also competing against the local banks for cards and remittances. In order to maintain and grow market share during the reporting period, Neoleap continued to enhance the stability and agility of its technology and services, and evolve as an end-to-end fintech ecosystem that provides merchants and customers with an unparalleled user experience. Despite the challenges from the competitive market and a highly regulated operating environment, Neoleap recorded significant growth in numbers by the end of the reporting period:

Key business highlights of 2023

Exploring new business models and geographies

As part of the Al Rajhi Group, Neoleap also continued to leverage Group synergies and cross-sell products to merchants and customers, providing vertical as well as value-added solutions such as POS financing, insurance, Cards and Marketplace to name a few. Such curated solutions based on specific requirements allows Neoleap to develop specialised business propositions and thereby penetrate new markets and geographies that operate under different regulations, business setups, operating environments and market needs. One such successful expansion was the launch of Merchant Acquiring Processing in Jordan through the Al Rajhi Bank Jordan branch in 2023.

Addressing the fintech talent challenge

One of the key challenges facing the fintech industry remained the attraction and retention of key technical and commercial talent in the field. Having cemented its position as one of the Kingdom’s fastest growing, market leading fintechs, Neoleap strengthened its reputation as an employer of choice, offering top fintech talent in the Kingdom with an unparalleled employee value proposition comprising an innovation-led work environment, competitive compensation and benefits, complemented by internal and external learning and development opportunities, so that employees can map their growth alongside the growth of the Subsidiary.

Neoleap also emphasises a nurturing, engaging, and inclusive company culture that fosters collaboration, by hosting numerous employee events throughout the year; 2023 saw the subsidiary host a number of religious and cultural calendar events alongside several corporate functions including the monthly employee recognition and rewards events, employee wellbeing events, sporting tournaments, as well as the Subsidiary’s second year anniversary celebration.