Saudi Arabia’s Lean Technologies is preparing to expand well beyond its open banking roots as it weighs new investments and quietly gears up for a potential public listing, according to new reporting by Bloomberg. CEO Hisham Al-Falih said the company is exploring opportunities in remittances, cross-border payments and alternative credit, while evaluating adjacent sectors such as insurance, pensions and investments.
Lean, which has raised at least $100 million from backers including General Catalyst, argues that its core open finance infrastructure gives it a natural springboard into these categories. “There are massive under-penetrated opportunities that we hear about from our customers,” Al-Falih said in an interview in Riyadh. “We feel we have a strong right to play and to solve these pain points.”
The timing is deliberate. The company is broadening its product suite as it puts early foundations in place for a future IPO. Al-Falih said both Saudi and regional exchanges remain “very attractive” but emphasised that no timeline has been set. Lean remains well capitalised after raising almost $70 million in a Series B last year, allowing it to push expansion without immediate fundraising pressure.
The company has benefited from regulatory tailwinds in Saudi and the UAE, where policymakers have accelerated open banking frameworks as part of broader economic diversification agendas. Fintech has emerged as a strategic growth sector for both governments, helping explain why startups in the region raised a record $1.2 billion last quarter despite a global downturn. That momentum has been driven by a handful of mega rounds and heightened investor appetite for payments and finance infrastructure.
Lean now supports more than 300 businesses across Saudi and the UAE, its two core markets. While it is focused on deepening penetration locally, Al-Falih said the company will consider selective country expansion over the next few years. For now, the priority is to widen the product stack, embed deeper in customer workflows, and position the company for public markets when the time is right.
