Omar Onsi is founder and chief executive of NymCard, a Dubai company licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE that runs card issuing, lending, and money movement for banks and fintechs across the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. He founded it in 2018.
A Telecom Founder
Onsi is a serial entrepreneur who started in telecoms. His earlier company, Nymgo, was an internet calling service in the mold of Skype, letting people make cheap international calls over the internet. “I love business, I love selling things, I love building things,” he says.
Running Nymgo out of Lebanon showed him how hard it was to move money in the region. When he tried to get payment cards issued for the business, no provider would do it quickly, and that frustration became the idea for NymCard.
Building NymCard
He founded NymCard in 2018 and moved it to the Hub71 technology hub in Abu Dhabi in 2019 before settling in Dubai. The pitch was simple: give banks and fintechs in the region modern card issuing through open APIs. “We built our technology from ground up, and we’re offering it over open APIs,” he says.
Early work included helping a client launch the first Visa virtual card in Iraq and powering the Yap wallet with Invest Bank in Jordan. In 2023 NymCard bought Spotii, a buy now, pay later company, and added lending to its platform. In March 2025 QED Investors led a $33 million Series B, its first investment in the Gulf, bringing total funding to $68 million. NymCard competes with Paymentology and Thredd.
A Regional Platform
NymCard now has more than 150 people in seven offices and is live in eight markets. Onsi has discussed that growth and the region’s payments market in a conversation with Edgar, Dunn.
