Forbes Middle East’s 2026 Fintech 50 puts Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt at the centre of the region’s financial technology landscape, with payments still dominating but lending, wealth, infrastructure and digital finance gaining ground. 

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MENA fintech cannot be defined by a small group of early leaders anymore. Larger payment companies, newer infrastructure providers, lending platforms, and embedded finance players are competing for the same regional customers.  

Forbes Middle East has released its Fintech 50 for 2026, ranking companies by their impact on financial technology across the region. The list includes 10 different countries, but the UAE leads with 15 companies, followed closely by Saudi Arabia with 13 and Egypt with 10. The list showcases how strongly fintech activity is clustered around the region’s three largest digital finance hubs.

Headquartered in Saudi Arabia, Tabby has ranked first for the second consecutive year. Tabby serves 25 million registered users and works with 70,000 brands across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.  

Fawry from Egypt ranks second with 55.4 million monthly users and a network of more than 378,000 point-of-sale terminals. MNT-Halan ranks third and operates across Egypt, Pakistan and the UAE. It also claims to have disbursed more than 16.8 billion in loans globally.  

Network International, a new entrant ranked 4th, serves more than 240,000 merchants and 250 financial institutions and fintechs across 50 countries. Rasan, another company headquartered in Saudi Arabia, ranked 5th with 13.6 million active users.  

Payments took the largest share in the ranking, with Network International, Paymob, and Lean Technologies. Fintech was also noted as the most funded sector amongst startups, attracting $708 million across 51 funding rounds in the first half of 2026. This highlights that investors appear willing to back companies with transaction volume, regulatory licenses, established merchant networks, and clear paths to profitability.  

Click here to view the complete list of Forbes 50 Middle East 

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