Collect from buyers. Control when money is released. Pay sellers at scale.
Marketplaces (also called platform or three-party payment models) are businesses where a customer pays, a seller fulfills, and the platform coordinates the transaction and earns a fee.
Mamo supports marketplace-style payment flows by letting you:
collect payments from buyers under your platform’s merchant account,
control when funds are charged or released (where needed),
automate payouts to sellers, partners, or customers,
keep your platform commission.
What “marketplace payments” usually means
In a marketplace, your platform typically needs to do three things:
Get paid by the buyer
Decide what happens next (accept, reject, timeout, milestones, refunds)
Pay out the right amounts to the right parties (seller(s) + your platform fee)
Most marketplace flows are implemented as:
Pay-in to your platform (your merchant account)
Platform logic decides the outcome and split
Payouts to sellers/partners (automated)
How marketplace payments work with Mamo
1. Your platform is the onboarded merchant (KYB)
Mamo onboards your marketplace entity as the primary merchant account (know your business (KYB)). Your platform then collects buyer payments and orchestrates payouts through your own platform rules.
Mamo Limited is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).
2. You collect from the buyer
You can collect buyer payments using:
Payment links / invoices from the dashboard
Custom API integrations (recommended for marketplaces)
3. Your platform applies your marketplace rules
Your platform defines the commercial rules of your marketplace (for example: who can transact, what happens on cancellations, and how seller earnings are calculated).
Important: Mamo does not run your marketplace’s “business logic” (like acceptance windows, timeout-based releases, or auto-actions) for you. If you need those behaviours, they are implemented in your own system, using Mamo’s payment building blocks (e.g., holds, capture/reverse, refunds) and event updates (webhooks).
Mamo does support payment-level rules and controls you can apply in your integration (for example, restricting to specific banks or other basic rules available via the API).
4. You pay sellers (payouts/disbursements)
Mamo supports payouts via API endpoints for recipients and disbursements, so you can automate payouts at scale.
Common marketplace flows Mamo supports
Which approach is right for you?
Choose the hybrid model if you want Mamo to handle recipient balance allocation and scheduled payouts, and you’re happy to pass recipient + payout share per payment.
Choose the fully custom model if you want full control over your own ledger, payout timing, exceptions (manual adjustments), and complex business rules and you’re comfortable triggering payouts programmatically.
In both approaches, you keep ownership of your commercial terms (who earns what and why). Mamo provides the rails to collect, allocate (in the hybrid approach), and pay out.
A) Split payouts (seller gets paid minus your platform fee)
Your platform collects the full amount, calculates commission, then allocates and pays out sellers.
There are two common ways to implement this split:
Fully custom (merchant-led logic): your platform calculates the exact amounts per seller and triggers payouts via API.
Hybrid split allocation (Mamo + merchant logic): your platform sends the recipient + payout share for each payment, and Mamo allocates balances for recipients. Payouts can then be scheduled without you calling the payouts API for every payout event.
Example (illustrative):
Buyer pays 50
Seller should receive 40
Platform keeps 10 as commission
Mamo provides the collection + payout rails. Your platform defines your pricing and commercial agreements.
Example from an existing Mamo customer: Lyvely (hybrid model)
Lyvely is a platform with content creators and freelancers, where customers subscribe to creators.
How they use Mamo:
Each creator can have different subscription plans.
The creator’s payout percentage depends on the plan (Lyvely maintains plan membership and commercial terms on their side).
When a payment is processed, Lyvely sends Mamo (via the payment API) the payout recipient and payout share / percentage for that payment.
On Mamo’s side, we allocate the split and maintain recipient balances.
Recipients are then auto-paid out on a scheduled basis (e.g., monthly), so Lyvely does not need to call the payouts API for every payout.
This approach works well for merchants who want Mamo to handle balance allocation and scheduled payouts, while still keeping their pricing and creator agreements fully owned in their own system.
B) Escrow-like flows using “Hold Funds & Charge Later”
If you need an escrow-like experience (e.g., “release only after acceptance” or “release after 48 hours if no dispute”), Mamo supports a hold → capture or reverse flow via API.
Help Center guide
Learn how to hold funds temporarily and decide what to do later, including currencies for holds: AED, USD, EUR, GBP, SAR: Hold Funds & Charge Later
How it works (high level):
Create a payment link with
hold_and_charge_later: trueOnce the buyer completes payment, get the payment ID via:
fetching transactions,
the predefined redirect URL, or
a webhook event charge_authorized
Later, capture or reverse using the payment (charge) ID
Developer doc endpoints:
Operational note: Payment holds are automatically reversed after 7 days if no action is taken.
C) Milestone or staged payouts (services marketplaces)
For services marketplaces, you can combine:
buyer collection,
your milestone logic,
automated payouts per milestone.
This is typically implemented using:
recipients (create / update)
disbursements (bulk payouts)
Developer doc endpoints:
Settlements vs payouts (important distinction
Settlements (your platform’s collected funds)
To receive settlements, you must register with a UAE bank account.
In practice, settlements are made to the merchant’s UAE registered bank account (your marketplace entity).
Payouts (your sellers, partners, customers)
Payouts are used to send money to sellers, suppliers, partners, or customers.
Availability note: payouts can be made to UAE accounts and to limited international bank accounts in the US, UK, and EU (subject to eligibility and enablement).
Verification and seller onboarding
Marketplaces typically maintain their own seller onboarding process.
From Mamo’s side, verification may be required for payout recipients depending on your setup and risk controls.
Disputes, chargebacks, and refunds
Card disputes (chargebacks) can happen when a cardholder challenges a transaction. Mamo provides dispute timelines, steps, and how to respond.
Refunds:
VAT and tax invoices
Mamo receipts and invoices show the breakdown of fees and VAT.
This article also covers where to find receipts and invoices, and what’s included on them.
For marketplace VAT on the underlying sale (buyer ↔ seller), please confirm your position with your tax adviser based on your commercial structure (agent vs principal, invoicing, terms, etc.).
Multi-currency support
Mamo supports creating payment links, invoices, and subscriptions in multiple currencies.
Note: Hold flows also support a specific set of currencies (see the hold guide).
Example use cases (illustrative)
Pre-owned goods marketplace
Buyer pays
Funds are held until acceptance / timeout (optional)
Seller is paid out minus platform fee
Platform manages disputes per its rules
Services marketplace
Buyer pays at booking
Capture after service completion
Payout provider automatically
Technical building blocks (developer docs)
If you’re implementing marketplace flows via API, these are the most common building blocks:
Hold + release actions:
Payouts: