Bede partners with Ottu to advance digital wallet adoption in Kuwait

09/02/2026 04:53 AST

Bede Kuwait, a subsidiary of Zain Group, has strategically partnered with Ottu, a payment orchestration platform operating across the Middle East and North Africa, to support enterprise businesses in Kuwait transition toward unified payment operations. This collaboration enhances the country's broader digital transformation and the increased adoption of digital wallets issued by Bede and other providers.

Through this partnership, the integration enables the distribution of Bede's wallet and payment gateway services across Ottu's enterprise merchant network in Kuwait, including businesses in retail, hospitality, education and digital services. Merchants using Ottu can activate Bede Wallet and services through configuration without additional development, supporting wider wallet acceptance across everyday payment use cases.

Bede merchants also gain access to centralized orchestration capabilities designed to support enterprise-scale payment operations, while benefiting from improved resilience, visibility and operational efficiency.

Ahmad Al-Nafisi, General Manager of Bede Kuwait said, "This strategic partnership aligns with Kuwait's ongoing efforts to modernize financial infrastructure, encourage cashless transactions and expand the use of regulated digital payment methods across the economy. Bede aims to continually partner with leading digital solutions providers such as Ottu that equip customers with practical tools to grow. Our mission is to enable merchants and entrepreneurs to manage their businesses with ease and security, empowering them to expand within Kuwait and beyond."

"The evolution of Kuwait's payment ecosystem requires infrastructure that supports scale, flexibility and new digital payment behaviors," said Talal Al-Awadhi, Chief Executive Officer of Ottu. "By combining orchestration with wallet and digital payments enablement, this partnership supports enterprises while contributing to the broader shift toward digital payments across the Kuwaiti economy."

Bede entered the regional fintech space in 2024 as a platform delivering innovative digital financial services and end-to-end payment solutions across Kuwait, Bahrain and Sudan. It currently offers secure, fast e-wallets for individuals and businesses, alongside advanced payment gateways that support multi-channel transactions, making everyday payments simpler and more efficient.

Bede operates under official central bank licenses in the markets where it provides its services, with a strong focus on security and full regulatory compliance. It aims to advance financial inclusion through simplified personal financing and technology-enabled tools, enabling merchants and consumers to benefit from a unified digital payments ecosystem that supports economic growth and e-commerce.

Ottu provides an independent orchestration layer that operates above payment gateways and wallets, allowing enterprises to connect multiple payment service providers through a single integration. This model enables businesses to manage routing logic, resilience, and operational oversight with access to multiple banks and payment providers.

Through Ottu's platform, merchants integrate once and gain access to multiple pre-connected payment providers. Transactions are routed based on configurable rules that consider performance, cost and availability. The platform also supports automatic failover to maintain continuity in the event of provider disruptions, while offering consolidated dashboards for finance, technology and reporting teams.

Bede is Zain Group's FinTech brand for consumers and businesses, rolled out across several Zain markets as part of Zain's '4WARD-Progress with Purpose' strategy in driving financial inclusion and contributing to the evolution of the region's digital ecosystem. Bede stems from Arabic and means "in my hand", along with the slogan "When you get more, you do more".

Built for scale and simplicity, Bede Kuwait delivers a complete omni-channel stack solution for startups, merchants and large enterprises offering POS solutions for secure, high-throughput in-store payments, QR-based payments for frictionless checkout across physical and digital touchpoints, payment links (one-time, recurring; installment-based with automated reminders and scheduled link creations), developer-friendly APIs for website/app integrations and multiple payment methods (e.g., KNET, credit cards, Apple Pay).

It also offers a user-friendly merchant portal and analytics-rich dashboard providing real-time visibility across transactions, reconciliation, and performance reporting paired with fast settlement cycles to support healthier cash flow & faster revenue recognition.

Ottu is a payment management platform serving enterprise merchants across the Middle East and North Africa. Ottu enables businesses to connect to multiple payment service providers through a single integration, offering centralized routing, automatic failover, and unified operational oversight. Ottu operates in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Singapore, serving enterprises across sectors including retail, hospitality, education, healthcare, e-commerce and digital services.

Kuwait Times