Indian tech firm Zoho has entered into a partnership with UAE-based fintech company areeba to enhance digital services for businesses across the Middle East. This agreement was formalized at Seamless Dubai 2025 and includes a significant investment of $5 million in wallet credits, allowing areeba’s customers to access Zoho’s suite of more than 55 cloud-based applications.

The partnership is strategically aimed at businesses in several countries, including the UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon. Zoho’s comprehensive tools are designed to support various operations such as invoicing, workforce management, and customer engagement. The integration options for different payment gateways included in this collaboration further enhance its value to users.

The initiative is set to launch in the upcoming months and will provide onboarding support, webinars, and customized packages to facilitate the transition for businesses. According to Zoho, this partnership is a part of their ongoing strategy to expand within the Middle East market.

Zoho has been building a regional presence through strategic alliances, starting with a partnership in 2019 with AlJammaz Cloud, which served as a distributor in the region. This systematic approach has allowed Zoho to establish a partner ecosystem that includes companies like Technobeans in Saudi Arabia and Abacus IT Solutions in the UAE, which offer implementation and consulting services for Zoho’s products.

Despite the promising outlook, the partnership also aims to address significant challenges faced by Middle Eastern businesses in digital transformation. Reports indicate that over 60% of manufacturers lack basic data management systems, while approximately 70% of workers do not have the necessary digital skills for Industry 4.0 technologies.

As the Middle East’s digital transformation market is projected to grow from $50.26 billion in 2025 to $149.34 billion by 2030, there is a pressing need for integrated business applications like those offered by Zoho. This growth is driven by government initiatives such as Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which focuses on reducing oil dependency through digital transformation across various sectors.