Mastercard is partnering with Kee Platforms to offer embedded financing for SMEs, micro retailers, and solo entrepreneurs through Mastercard Merchant Cloud.

The collaboration, which has potential to scale across the Middle East, aims to improve credit access for financially underserved businesses.

Mastercard will not provide credit itself, but the embedded lending solution will allow acquiring institutions to better support smaller firms.

Using precision credit scoring, the initiative will broaden access to credit and enable the delivery of real-time, contextualised products such as microloans, revolving credit, and instalment plans based on cash flow data.

“We are pleased to work with Mastercard to extend our technology to the merchant community. This partnership will help businesses and consumers access credit more seamlessly within their daily digital interactions,”

said Deepak H. Saluja, founder and CEO of Kee Platforms.

Mastercard Merchant Cloud connects to more than 240 acquirers globally and supports over 35 payment types.

It brings together gateway capabilities and services from Mastercard and its partners to help businesses manage payments, expand into new markets, and improve user experiences.

The partnership follows Mastercard’s EDGE forum, where Kee Platforms was recognised for its AI-driven embedded credit approach aimed at providing real-time, compliant working capital solutions for SMEs in emerging markets.

“This collaboration reflects Mastercard’s ongoing efforts to advance financial inclusion, and we look forward to working with Kee Platforms to support micro, small, and medium enterprises in the digital economy,”

said Gaurang Shah, Executive Vice-President of Global Acceptance and Merchant Solutions at Mastercard.

Featured image credit: Mastercard