The post-dated cheque is one of the great peculiarities of Gulf business life. Companies use them as payment commitments. A promise of money that can only be deposited on a future date. It's not a payment system. It's a trust workaround built on top of an infrastructure gap. Anthony Abou-Haydar decided to replace the workaround with actual infrastructure.
Mamo launched in Dubai in 2019 as a payment platform focused on small and medium businesses. The segment that banks historically under-serve and that fintechs tend to ignore in favour of consumer wallets. The core product: a business account with API-driven payment rails, instant domestic transfers, and tools to manage payables and receivables without touching a cheque book.
Abou-Haydar and co-founder Imad Gharazeddine raised $8.5 million from investors including Global Ventures, closing at a moment when the Central Bank of UAE was accelerating its open banking and payment infrastructure agenda. That regulatory tailwind matters enormously. Mamo isn't fighting the system. It's building on top of the system the CBUAE is actively modernising.
The target customer is the business that's too sophisticated for a personal bank account and too small to negotiate a corporate banking relationship. For that customer, Mamo offers same-day account opening, multi-user access, batch salary payments, and integration with accounting software. It's the banking layer that UAE businesses need but haven't had.
The PDC cheque will not disappear overnight. But every business that moves its payment operations onto Mamo stops needing it a little more. That's the flywheel Abou-Haydar is building. One less workaround at a time, in a market where the infrastructure upgrade is coming whether the banks are ready or not.