ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — 16 September 2026 — Foloosi, a UAE-born payments technology company, today announced that it has received In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the central bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) for a Category III licence under the Retail payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) Regulation. Foloosi founded by Omar Bin Brek and Mohan K
The milestone represents an important step in Foloosi’s regulatory journey as it works towards obtaining its final licence, subject to fulfilling the remaining requirements and conditions prescribed by the Central Bank of the UAE.
Foloosi has built its business around helping UAE merchants accept and manage digital payments across online and in-person channels. The company has now surpassed AED 7 billion in payment volume and has served more than 10,000 merchants across the UAE.
From its beginnings as an online payment gateway, Foloosi has expanded into a broader merchant payments platform spanning online payment acceptance, payment links, invoicing, subscriptions and recurring payments, QR payments, Tap to Phone, point-of-sale solutions, e-commerce and merchant payment operations.
Receiving In-Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the UAE is an important milestone for Foloosi and reflects the progress we have made in building a strong, secure and scalable payments business in the UAE.
We started Foloosi with a simple ambition: to build payment technology in the UAE that could serve businesses of every size. Today, after processing more than AED 7 billion in payments and serving over 10,000 merchants, we are entering the next chapter of that journey.
Our focus now is to complete the remaining regulatory requirements and continue building Foloosi into a trusted payments infrastructure company for the UAE.
Omar Bin Brek Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Foloosi
Building AI-Native Payment Infrastructure
AI is expected to become a foundational layer of Foloosi’s future payment architecture rather than a standalone feature added on top of existing payment products.
Every payment generates signals — transaction behaviour, device intelligence, merchant patterns, payment method performance, operational events, risk indicators and settlement information.
Foloosi’s long-term vision is to build infrastructure capable of interpreting these signals in real time.
This creates the foundation for an AI-native payment infrastructure where intelligence can continuously support decisions across the payment lifecycle.
The platform is being designed around capabilities such as:
AI-powered transaction intelligence to understand transaction behaviour and identify unusual patterns in real time.
Real-time fraud and risk intelligence capable of analysing payment, device and behavioural signals before and during transactions.
Intelligent payment orchestration to help determine the appropriate payment route and improve transaction performance.
AI-powered merchant intelligence that transforms payment data into actionable insights around customers, revenue and business performance.
Automated reconciliation and settlement intelligence to reduce manual payment operations and help merchants understand where their money is across the payment lifecycle.
And over time, agentic payment infrastructure, where authorised AI agents can interact with payment infrastructure through secure policies, permissions and controls.
Built in the UAE for the UAE
The In-Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the UAE represents an important step towards Foloosi’s next phase.
Foloosi will continue working with the Central Bank to fulfil the applicable requirements and conditions required for final licensing.
Alongside its regulatory journey, the company plans to continue investing in payment infrastructure, artificial intelligence, fraud and risk technology, merchant intelligence, security and payment operations.
Foloosi was also recognised as part of the UAE Future 100, reflecting its position among companies contributing to the country’s future economic sectors.
The vision is simple:
Payments were digital. Now payments become intelligent.
Foloosi is building AI-native payment infrastructure for the UAE.