Finovate Global Saudi Arabia: Embedded Finance, Digital Payments, and Lending

This week’s version of Finovate International seems at latest fintech information from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Saudi fintech HALA raises $157 million to gasoline embedded finance

Saudi Arabia-based fintech and embedded monetary companies supplier HALA has raised $157 million in Sequence B funding. The spherical is being billed as one of many largest fintech Sequence B rounds to this point for an organization primarily based within the Center East. Led by The Rise Fund and Sanabil Investments, the funding shall be used to reinforce HALA’s place within the Saudi market. This contains empowering the corporate to launch extra embedded monetary companies and lending merchandise to help micro, small, and medium-sized (MSM) enterprises, in addition to freelancers, within the area.

Based in 2017 and headquartered in Riyadh, HALA gives a complete embedded monetary companies together with enterprise accounts; card issuance, cost and switch companies; POS options, financing, and company playing cards. To this point, HALA has supported greater than 150,000 companies and processed greater than $8 billion in annual transactions.

“This landmark funding is a turning level for HALA, reflecting on our relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence in serving small companies,” HALA Co-founder and Chairman Esam Alnahdi stated. “We’re honored that our new buyers acknowledge the potential of our imaginative and prescient and the influence we aspire to make within the MSME panorama. Our journey is simply starting, and this help fuels our drive to create significant change.”

Additionally taking part within the funding had been QED, Raed Ventures, Impact46, Center East Enterprise Companions (MEVP), Isometry Capital, Arzan VC, BNVT Capital, Kaltaire Investments, Endeavor Catalyst, Nour Nouf Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures, and Wamda Capital.

Paymentology groups up with Enjaz to reinforce digital funds in Saudi Arabia

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between worldwide card issuer processor Paymentology and funds options firm Enjaz is designed to carry superior digital funds to shoppers in Saudi Arabia.

“At Enjaz, our focus has all the time been on giving our prospects velocity, comfort, and safety, whether or not they’re transferring cash overseas or making on a regular basis funds,” Enjaz CEO Bassam AlEidy stated. “By collaborating with Paymentology, we are able to now prolong our card companies that increase selection and improve monetary freedom. This partnership represents a serious step in shaping the way forward for funds in Saudi Arabia, delivering innovation that’s inclusive, dynamic, and tailor-made to the wants of our market.”

Integrating Paymentology’s issuing and processing platform will allow Enjaz to supply pay as you go, debit, and digital playing cards, all of which can seamlessly combine with the corporate’s present companies. The partnership may also carry functionalities resembling worldwide and home scheme enablement; tokenization for Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Mada Pay, in addition to instruments to spice up safety and allow real-time decisioning. Enjaz may also have the ability to leverage its new relationship with Paymentology to supply options resembling loyalty packages and multi-currency wallets.

“Saudi Arabia is constructing one of many world’s most dynamic funds ecosystems beneath Imaginative and prescient 2030. Enjaz’s ambition provides to that momentum, and Paymentology’s function is to energy innovators with safe, scalable issuing. Along with Enjaz, we’ll increase selection, speed up time-to-market, and lift the bar for buyer expertise within the area,” Paymentology CEO Jeff Parker stated.

Enjaz was established in 2022 as a wholly-owned funds arm of Financial institution Albilad. The agency is licensed by the Saudi Central Financial institution as a Main Digital Cash Establishment (EMI). The partnership with Paymentology comes at a time when the Saudi Central Financial institution is reporting that digital funds represented 79% of complete retail transactions in 2024, up from 70% within the earlier yr.

Riyadh-based monetary companies enabler Abwab.ai forges strategic partnership with Tuum

Abwab.ai, a monetary companies firm that makes a speciality of credit score decisioning, danger administration, and buyer engagement options, has introduced a strategic partnership with core banking platform supplier and Finovate Better of Present winner Tuum. The partnership will allow Abwab.ai to ship a seamless, end-to-end digital lending answer for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) all through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“SMEs are the spine of each economic system, but they continue to be underserved by conventional lenders,” Abwab.ai Founder and CEO Baraa Koshak stated. “By combining Abwab.ai’s AI-driven intelligence with Tuum’s next-generation core banking capabilities, we’re empowering monetary establishments to unlock SME development at scale.”

Based in 2022 by a staff that features know-how veterans from corporations like NVIDIA and HALA, Abwab.ai gives an underwriting automation platform that helps lenders make higher choices by remodeling unstructured information into actionable insights. The mixture of Abwab.ai’s credit score decisioning and analytics capabilities with Tuum’s modular core banking and lending platform will assist monetary establishments launch, scale, and optimize their SME lending merchandise quicker, extra effectively, and with larger transparency.

“Our mission at Tuum is to modernize monetary companies with modular know-how,” Tuum Chief Income Officer Miljan Stamenkovic stated. “Partnering with Abwab.ai permits us to carry a very end-to-end, AI-enhanced SME lending answer to the area, one which addresses an actual market want and accelerates digital transformation.”

UK-based Tuum received Better of Present in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. On the convention, the corporate confirmed how its modular, cloud-native, API-first banking platform leveraged its microservices structure to ship excessive scalability and adaptability, in addition to decrease upkeep prices.

Right here is our have a look at fintech innovation all over the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Premier Credit score Uganda raised $1.5 million from Swiss-based investor, Enabling Qapital.

EBANX introduced an integration with South Africa-based, real-time, open banking cost technique, Capitec Pay

South African fintech Avenue Pockets acquired Digitip, a South African startup that enabled casual works to obtain suggestions digitally.

Central and Japanese Europe

Center East and Northern Africa

valU launched Egypt’s first licensed Purchase Now, Pay Later service, on digital market Midday.

MENA-based monetary infrastructure supplier Lean Applied sciences teamed up with Know Your Payee (KYP) options firm iPiD.

UAE-based fintech Kamel Pay secured In-Precept Approval from the nation’s central financial institution for each Saved Worth Amenities (SVF) and Retail Fee Companies (RPS) licenses.

Central and Southern Asia

TechCrunch profiled Jar, an India-based fintech that allows its customers to spend money on gold by way of its app, that just lately introduced reaching profitability.

Kazakhstan’s third-largest financial institution, Financial institution CenterCredit (BCC) turned to core banking supplier Tuum to energy its new Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) proposition.

Financial institution of India launched its BOI Commerce Simple prompt mortgage providing in partnership with Cashinvoice.