At Seamless Dubai 2025, areeba signed a strategic partnership with Zoho. areeba is a leading payment processing service provider in the Middle East. The agreement will enable the company to offer a total of USD 5 million worth of wallet credits for Zoho Applications.
The credits will allow SMEs to adopt Zoho Applications to assist with their digital transformation with minimal upfront cost. The credits apply to over 55 different applications offered to Middle East companies, many of which are localised to the region.
areeba will share the credits amongst SMEs across the six countries in the Middle East where it operates its payment solution. They are the UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.
The partnership and the availability of credits will be finalised in the coming months. Currently, there is little information about the scheme. However, it intends to provide joint onboarding support, educational webinars, and tailored packages for all business types.
Prem Anand Velumani, Associate Director, Strategic Alliances, Zoho Middle East and Africa (MEA), commented, “Through areeba’s reach, we’re bringing Zoho closer to the heart of business communities across the region.
“This collaboration breaks down barriers to technology and empowers more organisations to modernise with confidence. It’s a powerful step in our mission to grow sustainably by staying locally rooted and globally connected.”
Maher Mikati, CEO, areeba, commented, “We are excited to partner with Zoho to bring added value to our customers by combining robust financial technology with world-class business software,” said Mikati. “This partnership is a major step forward in our mission to empower businesses with innovative, localised solutions.”
The MoU was signed in a ceremony at Seamless Dubai 2025 by Velumani and Mikati.
Zoho ramps up Middle East Partnerships.
This is not the first such partnership in the Middle East for Zoho. Earlier this year, it announced an agreement with the Umm Al Quwain Chamber of Commerce to drive digital transformation in the Emirate.
That saw the firm invest Umm Al Quwain AED 17 million in wallet credits value and AED 43 million in value dedicated to digital upskilling. Zoho aims to support over 8,600 businesses through its relationship with Umm Al Quwain.
In Egypt last year, it partnered with Fawry Business. It is another payments provider and presumably a competitor to areeba in that country. Zoho earmarked $35 million in wallet credits that will be allocated over the next few years.
Since launching in the Middle East and Africa, Zoho has continued to offer these freemium credits to attract users to its platform. The credits give access to applications for around a year, after which the usual pricing resumes.
Zoho tools help transform businesses.
Zoho has already held most of its Zoholics events in the region. However, for those based in Bahrain, it is set to host an event on May 26th at The Westin City Centre.
Zoho continues to make inroads in the Middle East with top-selling products such as Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, Zoho People, Zoho Books, and Zoho Creator. All are available in multiple languages, including Arabic and English.
It has also localised Zoho Payroll for some Middle Eastern countries. Many of its applications also support Right-to-Left (RTL) functionality. They integrate with both global and local payment gateway solutions, including Telr and Tap Payments.
The big question is whether it will launch its own Payments solution in the Middle East in the coming months. At Zoholics US, the product was launched into the US Market. That follows a successful rollout in India earlier in the year.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
The experienced and localised Payments and other services, combined with Zoho Applications, boost SMEs in the region to rapidly transform their business and expand into eCommerce and other areas.
The enterprise-grade technology that Zoho offers may also attract larger organisations. Many are looking for lower-cost solutions that they can pilot cost-effectively and then rapidly expand their offering.
It will be interesting to see what kind of businesses apply for the credits and how quickly they accelerate Zoho’s growth across these six countries. One measure will be whether Zoho holds a Zoholics in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt in 2026. It did not hold Zoholics events in those countries this year.
