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UAE spend-management fintech Alaan has received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services Category II licences.
Subject to final approval, the licences would allow Alaan to hold customer funds, run cross-border payments and issue corporate cards under CBUAE regulation.
That would bring more of the financial infrastructure behind Alaan’s products under its own regulatory umbrella. Its UAE corporate cards are currently issued by CBUAE-regulated NymCard, while its business account is issued by Islamic bank ruya.
FWDstart reported in June that Alaan had launched what it described as the region’s first AI-native business account, combining cards, payments and finance automation in one platform. Rival Pemo followed in August with its own SME business account, also powered by ruya.
The regulatory push is particularly relevant after Alaan’s experience in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. The company paused operations in the Kingdom after SAMA ordered card issuer Neoleap to suspend its BIN sponsorship programme in December 2025. Alaan, alongside Pemo and Pluto, had relied on Neoleap to issue cards in Saudi Arabia.
The UAE approvals would give Alaan a path towards reducing its reliance on third-party issuing and payments infrastructure as it expands beyond expense management into a broader business banking platform.
Alaan is part of a broader wave of CBUAE licensing this summer. Revolut secured full SVF and Category II RPS licences in June, while Remitly, KamelPay and Edenred UAE also received approvals in the following months. Rival spend-management platform Pemo and Checkout.com both secured in-principle SVF approval in July.
“This isn’t a milestone we mark and move on from,” co-founder and CEO Parthi Duraisamy said. “Once licensed, the Central Bank’s standard becomes the standard we build everything to.”
Alaan says its platform is now used by more than 3,000 finance teams, including G42, Careem, Tabby and Lulu Group, and that UAE revenue has grown at a triple-digit annual rate since launching in 2022.
The company raised a $48 million Series A led by Peak XV Partners last year, taking its total disclosed funding above $55 million. The round was earmarked in part for Alaan’s expansion beyond spend management into a broader AI-driven finance operations platform.
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