stc Pay, a Saudi-based mobile wallet owned by Saudi Telecom (stc), has announced that it raised $200 million from Western Union in its latest funding round. The deal between the two entities has given the global financial services company a 15% stake in Stc Pay.

Also, with this deal now finalized, the net market evaluation of stc Pay has shot all the way up to a whopping $1.33 billion (SAR 5 billion). This means stc Pay is now officially the first unicorn in Saudi Arabia. Although, some might argue that stc Pay doesn’t qualify to be called a startup as it started in 2017 with $26 million in funding received from stc, before getting another $80 million in 2019.

However, if you choose to call it a unicorn nonetheless, stc Pay is the third unicorn to have come out of the broader region. The other two were Careem and Emerging Market Property Group.

For the uninitiated, stc Pay is a digital mobile wallet that offers a whole range of digital financial services to consumers, including p2p money transfer, direct bank transfer, payment at online and offline stores with QR codes, online utility bill payments and recharge, and so on.

With 4.5 million users already, stc Pay claims to be the largest mobile wallet in all of MENA. 

It is worth noting that Stc has been operating a similar digital wallet in Bahrain as well.