Qatar-Based PayLater Bags Investment From UAE-Based LuLu AI

Qatar-based PayLater, one of the first companies to receive a buy now, pay later (BNPL) license from the Qatar Central Bank (QCB), has secured an undisclosed strategic investment from the UAE-based fintech-focused investor LuLu Alternative Investments (LuLu AI). 

Co-founded by Mohammed Al-Delaimi and Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon in Qatar in 2023, PayLater offers flexible, interest-free installment payment solutions tailored to the local market. The is LuLu AI's—the investment arm of LuLu Financial Holdings—first investment in Qatar’s financial sector, supporting its broader interest in expanding financial services across emerging markets. 

Inc. Arabia spoke to Al-Delaimi, who's the CEO of PayLater, to learn more about the strategic impact the LuLu AI investment will have on his company, and what’s next for it. 

“This investment is a significant validation of PayLater’s model, and an accelerator to our mission of reshaping responsible consumer finance in Qatar," Al-Delaimi said. "For the foreseeable future, our focus remains on deepening market penetration and operational scale within Qatar—where demand for ethical, flexible financial tools continues to grow. We believe there's still a great deal of untapped potential locally, and our priority is to serve it well before exploring expansion."

LuLu AI isn’t just bringing capital to the table, Al-Delaimi noted. With deep roots in regional fintech infrastructure and a growing portfolio of ventures addressing financial access, liquidity, and compliance, the investment firm is positioning itself as a force multiplier for PayLater’s next stage of growth. 

“LuLu AI brings more than capital—it brings access to a trusted regional fintech network, operational experience at scale, and a strategic mindset that aligns with our values,” Al-Delaimi explained. “This partnership opens doors to potential collaborations across LuLu’s ecosystem, including merchant partnerships and co-development of embedded finance use cases. We also see strong alignment in our joint ambition to raise the bar on security, compliance, and customer experience in the digital payments space.” 

A scene from the signing of the partnership between PayLater and LuLu AI. Image courtesy PayLater.

As consumer expectations shift, PayLater is closely tracking usage trends to refine its offerings. “We’re seeing high engagement and recurring usage from consumers across different income segments in Qatar, indicating a growing comfort with BNPL as a budgeting tool—not just a payment method,” Al-Delaimi said. “This is shaping our roadmap to include more personalized payment plans, better merchant-side tools, and deeper integration at checkout, both online and in-store. While we’re watching the GCC space closely, our product strategy today is firmly grounded in meeting evolving local needs with a high degree of relevance and reliability."

That local-first approach is also what Al-Delaimi sees as essential for any fintech founder building in emerging markets. “Focus on relevance, not hype," he advised. "In emerging markets, trust is everything—so, design with compliance, transparency, and local context at the core. Build your customer’s daily reality, not a global use case. And don’t underestimate the value of strategic partnerships. For us, being rooted in Qatar’s ecosystem and working closely with regulators and enablers has been key to our early success.” 

Looking ahead, PayLater is preparing for a financial ecosystem that is shifting fast. Al-Delaimi told us that his team is actively looking out for trends and preparing for them as well. “Three key trends stand out: regulatory tightening, the rise of contextual finance (where payments are fully embedded in non-financial apps), and increasing demand for ethical, Sharia-compliant financial tools,” Al-Delaimi said. “At PayLater, we’re proactively aligning with regulatory standards, investing in application program interface (API) infrastructure for embedded finance, and building a compliance-first product that resonates with both users and merchants. We're not just keeping pace with these shifts—we’re leaning into them as core pillars of our strategy.” 

Pictured in the lead image is PayLater co-founder and CEO Mohammed Al-Delaimi. Image courtesy PayLater.