Dubai‑based spend management platform Alaan has raised $48M in a heavily oversubscribed Series A, one of the largest early‑stage fintech rounds in the MENA region to date.
The round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) with participation from 885 Capital founders Sudeep Ramnani and Jai Mahtani, Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Pioneer Fund, and a roster of prominent regional founders and operators including Hosam Arab (Tabby), Mudassir Sheikha (Careem), and Jeppe Rindom (Pleo).
Both primary and secondary components were included in the raise.
Founded in 2022 by ex‑McKinsey consultants Parthi Duraisamy and Karun Kurien, Alaan is positioning itself as the MENA category leader in AI‑powered corporate spend and finance automation.
Its platform combines corporate cards with embedded AI finance agents that automate reconciliation, VAT extraction, receipt matching, and expense categorisation.
The company says it has already saved finance teams 1.5M+ hours of manual work, processed over 2.5M transactions, and is used by 1,500+ companies including G42, Careem, Lulu Group, Rivoli, and Tabby.
“We’re building an AI finance agent for every finance team in MENA, so they can focus on strategic decision‑making rather than manual processes,” said co‑founder & CEO Parthi Duraisamy. “With Peak XV’s global scale, network, and deep expertise, we can accelerate our product roadmap, expand our footprint in Saudi Arabia, and invest heavily in our AI capabilities.”
Peak XV’s GV Ravishankar called Alaan “the category leader” in MENA spend management.
“They’ve built an enterprise‑grade product with clear customer love and strong adoption across large and mid‑sized companies,” he said. “Their execution and rapid scaling position them to define this category in MENA.”
The company is doubling down on Saudi Arabia, launching operations earlier this year and recording six consecutive months of MoM transaction volume growth of over 100%.
The fresh capital will fund product expansion beyond spend management into a full AI‑driven finance operations platform, as well as scaling sales, customer success, and compliance teams to support rapid growth.
