Hey friends of Neem,

We have got some exciting news for you. At Neem, we have joined forces with the global payments leader, Mastercard, in a pioneering partnership marking the embedded finance revolution in Pakistan and the wider MENA region.

This strategic multi-year collaboration will help us enable financial wellness for Pakistan’s underserved communities and strengthen Neem's offerings - from card issuance to product-driven initiatives like remittances, loyalty reward programs, and much more in the future.

Let's face it – Pakistan's financial wellness landscape needs a significant boost. With less than 30% of the population having access to any form of financial services (Karandaaz, 2023), there is a serious gap. We are on a mission to bridge that gap, and we believe that embedded finance is a powerful tool and approach to make that happen.

Through the embedded finance model, digital businesses from any sector can integrate financial services directly into their products via application programming interfaces, or APIs. This allows non-financial businesses to offer core financial services to their customers, like payments, lending, insurance, and others, without having to build their own financial infrastructure, require a banking license, or deal with regulatory compliance.

This is not just a theory – we have seen it happen in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Embedded finance has been widely accredited as a revolution in financial services, creating a profound impact across emerging markets, and we believe Pakistan is ready for this shift. We have great confidence in our approach, and the partnership with Mastercard gives us even more strength to build the best solution for the local market.

To that end, we are developing a robust technology stack that can empower digital businesses in Pakistan to offer a wide range of financial services to their customers. Our banking-as-a-service platform covers everything from full payments infrastructure to embedded lending and insurance. Whether you are in mobility, agriculture, gaming, e-commerce, or other industry sectors, we can enable you to create new financial revenue streams and start providing financial products for your end-users.

What truly excites us is the shared commitment with the Mastercard team to make a positive impact on the environment and climate. As a first step, we are introducing planet-friendly debit cards in Pakistan. And we hope to inspire the wider ecosystem to champion more sustainable finance solutions.

Our co-founder, Vladimira Briestenska, said, "The partnership with Mastercard is a major milestone for Neem and the embedded finance movement in Pakistan. Also, sustainability is at the heart of this collaboration, and we are committed to inspiring the industry to join us in this movement.”

We believe that by bringing in globally proven models tailored to local use cases, we can create a substantial impact. Hence, this strategic partnership aims to put Pakistan on the global map of embedded finance. Join us and let's celebrate this important moment for the embedded finance movement and the fintech ecosystem in Pakistan.

Stay tuned for more updates from us, soon!

To learn more about our embedded payments products, please visit our payments infrastructure page. You can also start building payments services by signing up on our developer portal or get in touch with us by filling out this form.