Digital payments company Arab Financial Services (AFS) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with restaurant technology provider RestHero to enhance digital capabilities.
Under the non-binding agreement, the two companies will examine ways to roll out RestHero’s technology to restaurants and other food and beverage (F&B) merchants across the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
With the aim of going beyond basic payment acceptance, the partnership is set to enable F&B businesses to rely less on third-party aggregators.
RestHero CEO Abdulla Al Shimmari stated: “The investment and partnership with AFS is a transformative endorsement of RestHero's proprietary technology. By seamlessly integrating our dynamic customer engagement platform with their trusted, high-volume payment rails, we've unlocked a unique value proposition for F&B merchants.
“This unified infrastructure allows our partners to finally leverage real-time data for personalised marketing, achieving faster scale and gaining a definitive competitive edge in a rapidly evolving digital market.”
The collaboration aims to link AFS’s payments infrastructure with RestHero’s systems for online ordering, loyalty management and social commerce.
The goal is to provide restaurants with a single platform to oversee their online channels, bring together operational and transaction data, and manage customer interactions.
The planned integration is expected to be used to automate more day-to-day restaurant processes and reduce manual tasks, as well as to support a uniform customer experience across digital channels, including social media.
AFS CEO Samer Soliman stated: “This proposed strategic investment in RestHero is not merely a partnership - it is a profound step in building the future of regional F&B. By combining their sophisticated digital ordering and social commerce tools with AFS's established, secure payment network, we are creating a single, powerful ecosystem.
“This allows our merchant partners to instantly pivot to higher revenue capture and minimise operational friction, securing their growth trajectory in an increasingly digital consumer landscape.”
