Saudi - March 22, 2021:   Abdullah Al-Othman is the founder and chairman of geidea, a leading and fully licensed payment service provider offering digital payments solutions. In his role, Abdullah is highly committed to achieving geidea’s vision of providing accessible, affordable and customer-centric payment solutions for everyone.

As one of Saudi Arabia’s prominent and promising young business leaders, Abdullah’s career began in the world of real estate in 2008. Driven a long-running passion for all things digital, Abdullah’s initial success in the kingdom’s real estate sector enabled him to invest in a new fintech venture, geidea, in 2011. 

Initially launched with the goal of increasing the efficiency and availability of digital payment channels in the Saudi market, geidea began by providing software, payment terminals and ATMs to banks. Eventually, geidea received various government license and approvals in 2013, facilitating a quick expansion. By 2016, geidea firmly cemented its position as one of the largest service suppliers in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East - capturing more than 75% market share in the sector, amounting to over 400,000 terminals and serving more than 80,000 clients. Since then, the company has focused on offering small merchants with a complete suite of payment, ecommerce and business management tools aimed at growing and scaling their businesses. geidea remains committed towards development Saudi Arabia’s growing and vital SME sector – as well as helping the country reach the targets set forth in Saudi Vision 2030. 

Abdullah is also the founder of AO Holdings, a family investment house founded in 2019, and is the co-founder of Lemar United Real Estate, an international real estate and development company focused on the commercial sector. To date, Lemar has executed a number of high-profile real estate projects across Riyadh, including the Arcade centre on King Fahad Road and the three million square-metre Malga neighborhood. 

In addition to his business ventures, Abdullah is a member of the Business Entrepreneurs in the Chamber of Commerce, an institution designed to build commercial solidarity among businesses and protect their interests. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from King Saud University and an MBA from Al Faisal University.