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For Tewfik Cassis, Lean Technologies is not an open banking company, or at least not only that.
It’s trying to become the AWS for fintech in the Middle East, an infrastructure layer so reliable, ubiquitous and necessary that payments, verified financial data, underwriting and money movement can be built on top of it without merchants stitching together five or six providers.
That ambition now stretches well beyond Lean’s original open banking shorthand.
Founded in 2019, Lean has raised more than $100M to date, giving it the backing to push deeper into Pay by Bank, Open Finance and the broader fintech infrastructure stack across the region.
We sat down with Lean CPO Tewfik Cassis on the eve of the company’s biggest product launch to date, as it prepared to roll out its Pay by Bank suite across deposits, collections, checkout and pay-by-link.
In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Lean is building across account-to-account payments, open finance data, underwriting and money movement, while keeping one eye firmly on what comes next, from stablecoin-powered remittances to agentic commerce.
While cards are unlikely to disappear any time soon, debit card transactions, manual bank transfers and clunky direct debit experiences are all up for grabs.
And as Tewfik puts it, there’s no real reason for a customer to use debit over account-to-account payments if the experience, incentives and reliability are there.
We also get into what it actually takes to build in a regulated market, why Lean is willing to over-invest before regulation fully lands, and how the company thinks about being first to market without losing discipline.
This was a really, really fun and wide-ranging conversation, so a massive thanks again to Tewfik for taking the time to come on the FWDstart podcast.
We cover:
Why Lean is positioning itself as the AWS for fintech in the Middle East, and why Tewfik does not see the company as just an open banking provider
The thinking behind Lean’s biggest product launch to date, its Pay by Bank suite spanning deposits, collections, checkout and pay-by-link
Why consumer adoption is the hard part, from Apple Pay muscle memory to the role of merchant incentives, cashback and better payment experiences
How Lean builds ahead of regulation, makes product bets early and decides when to keep going or cut its losses
Why stablecoins could matter so much in the GCC, particularly across remittances, cross-border payroll, trade finance and real estate
How AI is changing the way Lean builds, hires and operates, from product management and engineering to internal tooling and SaaS spend
Timestamps
00:00 - Lean’s Ambition to Become the AWS for FinTech
00:45 - What Lean Is Today
02:10 - Why Lean Is More Than Open Banking
04:00 - Pay by Bank, Debit, and the UAE Opportunity
05:00 - What Licensing Unlocks in the UAE and Saudi
07:00 - Collections, Recurring Payments, and BNPL
10:00 - Building Sticky Products for E-Commerce and Travel
13:00 - Shipping Product Before Regulation Lands
16:20 - Why Customers Would Use Pay by Bank Over Apple Pay
21:45 - Lean’s Four Pay by Bank Products
27:15 - Stablecoins, Remittances, and Cross-Border Payments
31:40 - AI, Vibe Coding, and the Future of Product Teams
44:15 - Saudi, Expansion, and What Comes Next
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