Spades

What Spades does

Spades is a Dubai-headquartered fintech founded in 2021 that operates a contactless dine-in payment platform for restaurants and hospitality businesses in the UAE. Its core product lets customers settle their bills at the table by scanning a QR code or tapping via NFC, without downloading any application. The platform is designed to integrate with restaurants' existing Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, enabling venues to adopt the service without replacing current payment or order-management infrastructure. Functional benefits emphasized in the data are operational efficiency for venues and a frictionless checkout experience for guests.

Spades monetizes through transaction fees charged to restaurants for payment processing on the dine-in flow. It sells to its customer base — cafés, restaurants, and other hospitality venues in the UAE — through a direct enterprise field-sales motion. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. The company raised a $2.5 million angel funding round in May 2022 from European angel investors Thibaud Elzière, Eduardo Ronzano, and Yan Hascoet, and used the proceeds to launch its dine-in payment service in the UAE. As of the available sources, the company is privately held, has 11–50 employees, operates only in the UAE, and discloses no customer logos, revenue figures, or follow-on funding.

Name

Spades

Website

https://spadesapp.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Spades is a Dubai-based fintech that provides contactless dine-in QR and NFC payment services to restaurants and hospitality venues in the UAE via its POS-integrated platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Restaurant Payment Solutions

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYFSAGABAO

POS, SoftPOS & In-Person Acceptance Infrastructure

Financial & Insurance/Financial Technology (Fintech)/Payment Orchestration & Fintech Infrastructure (APIs, Issuing, Processing)

Keywords

• Dine-in payments
• Contactless payments
• Restaurant POS integration
• QR code payments
• Hospitality fintech

Headquarters

HQ city

Dubai

HQ country

United Arab Emirates

HQ region

Middle East

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Dine-in Payment Services: Spades generates revenue through its dine-in payment service that integrates with restaurant POS systems. The company charges restaurants for payment processing services, likely through transaction fees.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

Spades provides a contactless dine-in payment platform that enables restaurant customers to pay at their table via QR code scanning or NFC tapping, with no app download required. The service integrates directly with existing restaurant POS systems to streamline payment workflows, reduce server dependency, and improve operational efficiency for hospitality venues in the UAE.

Product overview

Spades offers a single unified dine-in payment service for restaurants. The platform enables customers to pay directly at their table via QR code scanning or tapping, with no app download required, integrating with restaurant POS systems to streamline payment processing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Dine-in Payment Service A contactless dine-in payment platform that allows restaurant customers to pay at their table by scanning QR codes or tapping, without requiring app downloads, and integrates with restaurant POS systems to streamline payment workflows and improve operational efficiency. Target users are restaurants, cafes, and hospitality venues in the UAE.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature3 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Stripe Terminal: Developer-first POS and in-person payment infrastructure product from Stripe. Comparable as a payment orchestration and in-person acceptance layer that could be embedded into Spades-style restaurant experiences.
• Square (Block): Mobile-first POS and contactless payment acceptance provider used widely by SMBs including restaurants. Comparable on the contactless dine-in acceptance layer, though it serves a much broader merchant base beyond hospitality.
• Zettle (PayPal): Mobile card reader and contactless payment acceptance solution from PayPal used by small merchants including restaurants. Comparable on the contactless in-person acceptance layer, but not specialized in hospitality dine-in flows.
• Toast: Large US-based restaurant POS and payments platform offering integrated dine-in payment, online ordering and restaurant operations software. Comparable as a restaurant-focused payments and POS incumbent, though operating at much larger scale and primarily in North America.
• Adyen: Global unified payments platform with strong in-person and POS capabilities, including hospitality and restaurant merchants. Comparable on the omnichannel payment acceptance layer, though serving much larger enterprise merchants globally.
• Network International: Leading MENA payment processor providing acquiring, processing and POS solutions across the UAE and broader region. Comparable as established in-person payment infrastructure provider operating in the same geography, though serving merchants broadly.

Emerging players

• Careem Pay: MENA super-app with a payments arm serving consumers and merchants across the UAE. Comparable as a regional digital payments provider operating in the same geography and capable of extending into hospitality pay-at-table flows.

Direct peers

• SpotOn: Restaurant-focused payments and software platform offering contactless pay-at-table, online ordering, marketing and POS. Direct competitor in the integrated dine-in payment space for restaurants, though US-centric.
• qlub: Direct competitor offering contactless payment and digital menu solutions for restaurants in the UAE, KSA, Qatar and beyond; claims 3,000+ venues. Most comparable peer given shared geography, product category (QR/NFC dine-in pay), and customer base (UAE hospitality).

Regional players

• Yoco: South African mobile POS and contactless payment provider for SMBs including restaurants. Comparable in targeting restaurant and SMB dine-in payment modernization, but operating in a different geography (Sub-Saharan Africa).

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SpadesApp
• Facebookfacebook.com/spadesapp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Spades