barq gives consumers in Saudi Arabia one app for sending money, moving balances between wallets and accounts, and paying by card. The Riyadh company said it closed a $329.5 million Series A at a $1.85 billion valuation, putting new capital behind a product that combines everyday spending with international transfers.
The workflow starts with a wallet or account inside the app. barq’s App Store listing says users can initiate international transfers, instantly move funds among wallets and accounts, and use cards for purchases that may require foreign exchange. Those functions keep remittances, balance management and card spending inside the same customer relationship.
barq says it surpassed 15 million users from more than 210 nationalities within two years and processed more than SAR 440 billion during that period. Those are company-reported scale measures; the sources do not divide the activity among cards, remittances and other services. Processed funds measure the value moved through the platform, not barq’s revenue.
Noon Investments, Sohar International Bank and M20 Fund participated in the Series A. barq said it will use the proceeds to strengthen operational efficiency, accelerate product and service development, invest in additional financial and technology solutions, and enter more regional and international markets.
barq has also added a cross-border checkout route. Wamda’s reproduction of the company announcement says an Alipay+ partnership lets users make QR payments at supported merchants across more than 220 markets. Alipay+ documentation separately lists barq as supporting its user-presented and merchant-presented payment modes; the documentation does not spell out the commercial terms between the companies.
The round gives barq room to make cards, transfers and QR payments reinforce the same account as it expands beyond Saudi Arabia. The operating test is whether its reported user base adopts several of those services repeatedly—and whether barq can preserve that use as it enters new markets.