Startups Shifting How People Bank & Access Public Services in Jordan

Jordan secured $246 million in startup funding across 220 deals between 2018 and 2022, making it the fourth most-funded startup ecosystem in MENA after the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Within that ecosystem, fintech and govtech have emerged as two of the country's fastest-growing sectors.

Recent government initiatives have played a role in shaping that growth. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship launched a $100 million technology-focused venture capital fund in partnership with Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company, while regulatory sandbox programmes have enabled fintech startups to test products before entering the market.

At the same time, Jordan has continued to expand its digital public infrastructure. By 2025, 80% of government services, equivalent to 1,920 services, had been digitised. Recent developments include the rollout of electronic passports, airport e-gates, a unified government services platform, a tax e-invoicing system and an open data platform containing more than 3,800 datasets.

Together, these developments have created an environment in which startups are building alongside an increasingly digital public sector. The companies below are among those operating within that ecosystem.

MadfoatCom

Digital payments, unified

Established in 2011, MadfoatCom sits at the junction of fintech and public infrastructure, providing real-time payment processing solutions to businesses, governments, and individuals. MadfoatCom operates in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Palestine, the UAE and Morocco, and claims 3.6 million active users and over 1.4 million app downloads as of early 2023.

The platform connects billers, agents, banks, and mobile wallets onto a single payment network which means that a citizen in a rural governorate can pay a government bill without stepping into a branch. MadfoatCom has established a vast network of agents across Jordan, through which millions of payments have been processed, reaching unbanked individuals and cash-centric consumers. In early 2025, Egyptian fintech Basata acquired an additional stake in the company, a consolidation move that points to the growing interest in cross-border fintech infrastructure across North Africa and the Levant.

Dinarak

The wallet for the unbanked

Founded in 2014, Dinarak is a mobile wallet, money transfer, electronic bill payment and funds disbursement service, allowing users to deposit, withdraw and transfer money, as well as pay for goods and services via their mobile phone. It also operates JoMoPay, the Jordanian national mobile payments switch, which enables interoperability between licensed mobile payment service providers, mobile wallets, bank accounts, and prepaid cards.

That interoperability piece matters enormously in a country where, as of 2022, only 12% of the millions of refugees Jordan hosts were estimated to have a bank account or mobile wallet, and 43% of adult Jordanians overall had access to banking services. Dinarak's model is designed precisely for that gap, reaching people for whom the traditional banking system either does not apply or has never bothered to. The company claims it serves more than 400,000 customers and 3,000 businesses.

Liwwa

Credit for the businesses banks ignore

Liwwa is a prominent alternative lending platform providing fast, affordable credit to small businesses, particularly those in craft and retail. It was the country's first peer-to-peer lending platform, and it has spent its existence trying to solve a problem that conventional banks in the region have largely declined to address: how do you finance a business when it has no formal credit history, no collateral, and no relationship with a financial institution?

The approach is data-driven underwriting, assessing creditworthiness through transactional and operational signals. Liwwa secured an $18.5 million pre-Series B round in September 2022 to fuel its growth and expansion plans, and more recently secured a $5 million loan from the United States International Development Finance Corporation.

Capifly

Revenue-based financing for startups

Where Liwwa focuses on SMEs in the traditional economy, Capifly has built its model around the digital economy's particular financial rhythms. Capifly developed the first online lending platform for startups in the MENA region, offering fast, short-term financing that is Sharia-compliant. The model is revenue-based: startups borrow against their annual recurring revenue and repay as they grow, without diluting their equity. The company was co-founded in 2021 by Dunya Bashiti and Ahmed Jaradat, raised $1 million in a pre-seed round from backers including Oasis500, BLDR Ventures, Joa Capital, and Ahli Fintech, and subsequently announced a $10 million non-dilutive capital facility.

Capifly has since expanded into Saudi Arabia and taken initial steps toward registering in Malaysia. The company won Bank al Etihad's 2024 SME Award under the theme "Shape the Future of Fintech," selected by an independent panel of judges.

InvoiceQ

The e-invoicing layer

InvoiceQ was built around the problem of paper invoices, a comprehensive platform designed to fully digitise the invoicing process and make payment collection more efficient for businesses of all sizes. It connects directly with local and international payment channels, including eFAWATEERcom and Visa, and its services sit within the broader e-invoicing infrastructure that Jordan has been building at a national level.

InvoiceQ raised a pre-Series A funding round of $1.2 million, backed by Oasis500 and Orange, among others. Founded in 2020, the startup is relatively young but well-positioned, given that Jordan's 2026–2028 digital transformation strategy centres on the JoFotara e-invoicing system and integrating digital payments across all sectors, with the explicit goal of reducing the shadow economy and increasing financial inclusion.

Numa

Banking for the freelance economy

Numa is a financial technology company focused on providing banking solutions for freelancers and self-employed professionals in the Arab world, offering virtual IBANs, virtual Visa cards, financial management tools, and a community platform, all designed to comply with Islamic finance Sharia standards. Its users are creators, software developers, and digital marketers. Founded in 2021, Numa has attracted a Visa partnership and strategic investment. The company's expansion plans include Saudi Arabia, where the freelance and creator economy has grown significantly in line with Vision 2030.

DareebaTech

Tax compliance, simplified

DareebaTech is a startup with an objective to offer an online tax solution that enables users to apply their taxes accurately and conveniently. It sits at the intersection of fintech and govtech — a category of company that becomes more relevant the more aggressively governments push digital compliance mandates. As Jordan's Ministry of Digital Economy rolls out mandatory e-invoicing and the national tax authority modernises its infrastructure, the demand for a product like DareebaTech's is structurally embedded in the reform agenda itself.

Solfeh

Emergency credit for salaried workers

Solfeh is a fintech micro-lending platform providing same-day emergency cash advances to salaried employees. The model addresses a real and specific pain point: the period between when a worker needs money and when their next salary arrives. Payday lending in the region has historically been the province of informal lenders at punishing rates; Solfeh's proposition is a faster, regulated alternative, working through employer partnerships to verify income and manage repayment.