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BACKED BY
Author
Parthi Duraisamy
Co Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Alaan
To be the most loved fintech in the Middle East
That’s the bar we set when we started Alaan. A vision that demands more than just functionality - it means solving real pain with velocity, care, and an obsession with every customer’s experience.
And that pain was everywhere - broken systems don’t fail overnight, they break slowly. One missing receipt, one manual entry, one follow-up email, and then a hundred more. Employees spending weekends filing expenses, while finance teams are buried in admin. From startups managing burn to large companies struggling with compliance, it’s a problem amplified in our region, where most finance software is built elsewhere, retrofitted for MENA, and lacks the local context companies here desperately need.
That is why Karun and I built Alaan: a platform that gives finance teams full visibility, automated control, and real-time efficiency, with none of the manual grind.
Today, I’m happy to share that we’ve raised a $48M Series A in equity funding.
This round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) and 885 Capital, and was also joined by Pioneer Fund, with continued support from Y Combinator and 468 Capital. The round includes both primary and secondary funding. What makes this even more special is that we are now backed by some of the region's leading operator angels - Hosam Arab (Founder of Tabby), Mudassir Sheikha (Founder of Careem), Jeppe Rindom (Founder of Pleo), Parth Garg (Founder of Aspora), Khalid Al Ameri (Founder of KAM and the Middle East’s most well-known creator), Abdallah Abu-Sheikh (Founder of Astra Tech), Yi Wei Ang (CPO of Talabat), and many others.
This trust in us is a big achievement for the team but more importantly, it’s validation of the problem we’re solving and the opportunity ahead for our region.
And that pain was everywhere - broken systems don’t fail overnight, they break slowly. One missing receipt, one manual entry, one follow-up email, and then a hundred more. Employees spending weekends filing expenses, while finance teams are buried in admin. From startups managing burn to large companies struggling with compliance, it’s a problem amplified in our region, where most finance software is built elsewhere, retrofitted for MENA, and lacks the local context companies here desperately need.
That is why Karun and I built Alaan: a platform that gives finance teams full visibility, automated control, and real-time efficiency, with none of the manual grind.
Today, I’m happy to share that we’ve raised a $48M Series A in equity funding.
This round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) and 885 Capital, and was also joined by Pioneer Fund, with continued support from Y Combinator and 468 Capital. The round includes both primary and secondary funding. What makes this even more special is that we are now backed by some of the region's leading operator angels - Hosam Arab (Founder of Tabby), Mudassir Sheikha (Founder of Careem), Jeppe Rindom (Founder of Pleo), Parth Garg (Founder of Aspora), Khalid Al Ameri (Founder of KAM and the Middle East’s most well-known creator), Abdallah Abu-Sheikh (Founder of Astra Tech), Yi Wei Ang (CPO of Talabat), and many others.
This trust in us is a big achievement for the team but more importantly, it’s validation of the problem we’re solving and the opportunity ahead for our region.
Why would a profitable company raise money?
Profitability was never the only end goal. Impact was.
From day one, we built Alaan to be financially disciplined. We were generating revenue early, growing efficiently, and hitting profitability faster than most would expect from a fintech company in our space.
But we didn’t raise this round to keep the lights on - we raised it to move faster and drive our mission of becoming the most loved fintech in the Middle East.
There’s a growing wave of finance leaders in this region who no longer want to accept outdated tools, fragmented workflows, and hidden costs as “normal.” The demand is real, and we’re seeing it every day - in deal cycles, in usage, and in feedback.
Azizi, one of the UAE’s largest real estate developers, consolidated internal workflows across its contracting and real estate development arms into a single platform. By unifying spend processes across departments and entities, teams in finance, operations, and beyond now benefit from a level of visibility and control they didn’t have before.
One of our earliest customers, GuestReady, a global holiday homes venture, replaced shared cards with Alaan. They now issue virtual cards to all employees, control spend by properties, and close books 8x faster.
“Thanks to tools like Alaan الآن, automation and AI are not just buzzwords - they’re our superpower.” Abhishek Tak, Head of Finance at GuestReady said this to our team once and that statement stuck.
From day one, we built Alaan to be financially disciplined. We were generating revenue early, growing efficiently, and hitting profitability faster than most would expect from a fintech company in our space.
But we didn’t raise this round to keep the lights on - we raised it to move faster and drive our mission of becoming the most loved fintech in the Middle East.
There’s a growing wave of finance leaders in this region who no longer want to accept outdated tools, fragmented workflows, and hidden costs as “normal.” The demand is real, and we’re seeing it every day - in deal cycles, in usage, and in feedback.
Azizi, one of the UAE’s largest real estate developers, consolidated internal workflows across its contracting and real estate development arms into a single platform. By unifying spend processes across departments and entities, teams in finance, operations, and beyond now benefit from a level of visibility and control they didn’t have before.
One of our earliest customers, GuestReady, a global holiday homes venture, replaced shared cards with Alaan. They now issue virtual cards to all employees, control spend by properties, and close books 8x faster.
“Thanks to tools like Alaan الآن, automation and AI are not just buzzwords - they’re our superpower.” Abhishek Tak, Head of Finance at GuestReady said this to our team once and that statement stuck.
“Thanks to tools like Alaan الآن, automation and AI are not just buzzwords - they’re our superpower.”
Abhishek Tak,
Head of Finance GuestReady
Is AI really a superpower for finance teams?
What Abhishek said was important for us to hear because it reflects something we’ve been quietly building behind the scenes for the past year: AI agents.
These agents are automating repetitive tasks, saving time, reducing human error, and freeing up finance teams to focus on the things that actually need their judgment.
Take Alaan Drop, our receipt-matching agent. It lets employees upload receipts via email, WhatsApp, or Chrome, and automatically matches them to the correct transaction - eliminating manual uploads and receipt chasing.
Our memo population and categorisation agents do the same for context - pulling from historical data to suggest descriptions, categories, and tags that make reconciliation easier.
Then there’s the VAT agent, helping teams maximise recoverable tax - by reminding employees to submit tax invoices for claimable spend, extracting the right details from the invoices like invoice numbers, TRNs, VAT amounts. And if something’s off? The agent flags it. Wrong tax code, missing invoice, incorrect input - finance teams are notified before the books are closed.
These agents are handling the kind of manual, repetitive work that usually slows teams down. As of today, Alaan has saved finance teams across our customer base over 1,500,000 hours in the last three years.
These agents are automating repetitive tasks, saving time, reducing human error, and freeing up finance teams to focus on the things that actually need their judgment.
Take Alaan Drop, our receipt-matching agent. It lets employees upload receipts via email, WhatsApp, or Chrome, and automatically matches them to the correct transaction - eliminating manual uploads and receipt chasing.
Our memo population and categorisation agents do the same for context - pulling from historical data to suggest descriptions, categories, and tags that make reconciliation easier.
Then there’s the VAT agent, helping teams maximise recoverable tax - by reminding employees to submit tax invoices for claimable spend, extracting the right details from the invoices like invoice numbers, TRNs, VAT amounts. And if something’s off? The agent flags it. Wrong tax code, missing invoice, incorrect input - finance teams are notified before the books are closed.
These agents are handling the kind of manual, repetitive work that usually slows teams down. As of today, Alaan has saved finance teams across our customer base over 1,500,000 hours in the last three years.
What’s next?
This funding allows us to accelerate in two core areas: expanding our presence in Saudi Arabia and UAE, and continuing to build AI-powered agents and new product capabilities that simplify finance for teams across the region.
Saudi Arabia is a market we’ve been excited about from day one. The pace of growth, digital transformation, and ambition from local businesses is unmatched. But they’re still underserved when it comes to modern finance tools. We’re investing heavily in building a local presence, with features tailored specifically to Saudi tax rules, workflows, and language.
We’re also expanding our suite of AI finance agents, - focused and purpose-built bots that eliminate repetitive tasks for finance teams. Agents that review expenses, flag outliers, approve based on historical behavior, and sync everything to your accounting system - without needing input.
At the same time, we’re launching new products like Bill Pay and Rewards Cards, giving finance teams more ways to manage spend, enjoy the perks of their hard work and close books faster - all on one platform.
Saudi Arabia is a market we’ve been excited about from day one. The pace of growth, digital transformation, and ambition from local businesses is unmatched. But they’re still underserved when it comes to modern finance tools. We’re investing heavily in building a local presence, with features tailored specifically to Saudi tax rules, workflows, and language.
We’re also expanding our suite of AI finance agents, - focused and purpose-built bots that eliminate repetitive tasks for finance teams. Agents that review expenses, flag outliers, approve based on historical behavior, and sync everything to your accounting system - without needing input.
At the same time, we’re launching new products like Bill Pay and Rewards Cards, giving finance teams more ways to manage spend, enjoy the perks of their hard work and close books faster - all on one platform.
To our community, thank you - this is our win.
To our customers: thank you for pushing us to solve real problems. You didn’t ask for bells and whistles, you asked for visibility, control, and time back. That’s what we’ll keep building.
To the wider community: from CHAI with Alaan, to the CFOs who’ve shared their stories with us, to the ACCA, IMA, Crunchmoms, and all the quiet conversations in between - thank you for helping us build something that goes beyond the product. You reminded us that people in finance don’t just need better tools, they also need a space to connect, to speak freely, and to feel seen in a profession that often gets overlooked. None of it would’ve been possible without your openness and willingness to build it with us.
To the A-team I don't say this enough, but thank you for the velocity, care, and thoughtfulness you bring to work every single day. What we’ve built wouldn’t exist without your consistency.
To anyone still reconciling expenses in Excel, we’re here to help.
We’re building the finance infrastructure this region deserves.
And as cliche as it sounds, we’re just getting started. 🚀
- Parthi
To the A-team I don't say this enough, but thank you for the velocity, care, and thoughtfulness you bring to work every single day. What we’ve built wouldn’t exist without your consistency.
To anyone still reconciling expenses in Excel, we’re here to help.
We’re building the finance infrastructure this region deserves.
And as cliche as it sounds, we’re just getting started. 🚀
- Parthi
If your company has expenses, Alaan is the solution for you.
More control | More savings | More automation
