Alaan, an AI-powered fintech startup transforming spend management for businesses in the Middle East, has raised $48 million in Series A funding, one of the largest in the region. The round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) and saw participation from notable investors like Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Pioneer Fund, and founders from Alaan’s client network, including Tabby, Careem, and popular regional YouTuber Khalid Al Ameri.
Alaan, founded by Parthi Duraisamy and Karun Kurien, was created due to frustration with traditional corporate expense systems in the Middle East. Duraisamy recalls his experience at McKinsey’s Dubai office, where American Express cards were often declined, forcing employees to pay upfront and manually reconcile.
Alaan, launched in 2022, is the top B2B spend management platform in MENA, processing over 2.5 million transactions for over 1,500 finance teams. It offers AI-powered reconciliation, VAT extraction, and card-based expense automation, eliminating manual financial workflows for regional enterprises.
Despite early traction, Alaan’s journey wasn’t without regulatory hurdles. After raising a $2.5 million seed round in 2021, the company couldn’t launch for nearly a year due to licensing and banking partner delays in the UAE. Expanding into Saudi Arabia brought similar delays, taking years to receive final approval from the country’s central bank before officially launching in January 2025.
Alaan, a fintech in the region, became the first to integrate Apple Pay for B2B transactions and used OpenAI tools to shape its product roadmap in early 2023. Despite initial chatbot experiments not gaining traction, they shifted focus to improving operational efficiency using AI behind the scenes.
The company’s platform has saved finance teams over 1.5 million hours of manual work by automating reconciliations, matching receipts, and navigating VAT, according to Duraisamy.
Alaan, a fintech that spent $5 million to generate $10 million in revenue, is already profitable. The company maintains a capital-efficient model, focusing on fundamentals rather than fundraising hype, compared to US spend management giant Ramp.
The $48M Series A will support further expansion into Saudi Arabia, where Alaan has been doubling transaction volume month-over-month since its January launch. The funding will also fuel hiring across compliance, sales, and customer success, along with additional investment in AI-driven automation for finance teams.
As the demand for digitized and intelligent financial workflows grows in MENA, Alaan’s blend of AI innovation, regional insight, and product-market fit is positioning it as a category-defining fintech in the B2B space.
