Saudi SME lending startup Abwab.ai raises $4M led by Speedinvest and MEVP

Saudi fintech Abwab.ai has raised $4 million in seed funding from Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and Speedinvest, with the round unveiled this week at the LEAP conference in Riyadh.

The Riyadh-based startup builds AI-powered credit infrastructure for banks and other lenders, automating much of the work involved in originating and underwriting loans to small and medium-sized businesses.

Unlike the growing crop of fintechs lending directly to SMEs, Abwab doesn’t lend from its own balance sheet. Instead, it sits underneath lenders, pulling together bank statements, VAT records, financial statements, credit bureau data and other signals to assess borrowers and help credit teams decide whether to lend, how much to offer and at what price.

The company was founded in Riyadh in 2023 by Baraa Koshak and Mohammad Hashem. Koshak previously worked on credit and data products at Revolut, Hala and Mozn, following an earlier stint at McKinsey, while Hashem spent more than a decade across banking and financial services, including at Oliver Wyman.

Abwab now says its technology is used by more than 13 financial institutions and has processed over SAR 1 billion in SME loans. Its website lists Saudi SME Bank, Abdul Latif Jameel Finance, Lendo, Hala Financing, Kafalah and Raqamyah among the institutions using or working with its platform.

Saudi SME lending reached SAR 489.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 28% year on year, according to Saudi Central Bank data. As loan books expand, underwriting becomes a bigger operational constraint, with smaller SME loans often requiring many of the same manual checks as much larger corporate facilities and making them comparatively expensive to assess and process.

Abwab is building the infrastructure to streamline that process, spanning credit decisioning, digital loan origination and portfolio monitoring, as well as embedded financing that allows lenders to distribute pre-qualified credit through payroll, ecommerce and point-of-sale platforms.

The funding itself appears to pre-date its public unveiling at LEAP. Speedinvest lists Abwab as a portfolio company from 2025, while Abwab says Speedinvest general partner Stefan Klestil sits on its board after the VC led its seed round. MEVP is also now listed among the company's investors.

Speedinvest has since expanded its presence in the region, launching its first dedicated Middle East and Africa fund earlier this year with backing from Mubadala, Qatar Investment Authority and the European Investment Bank. MEVP, meanwhile, is investing from its fourth regional fund, which targets sectors including fintech and AI across MENATP.