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Maalexi, the UAE-based agricultural trade fintech, has raised $2.8 million in an oversubscribed round led by Tawuniya, the Saudi insurer listed on the Tadawul, with participation from Global Ventures, the Dubai firm that led its pre-Series A.
The capital will fund the build-out of the Maalexi Agricultural Assets Token Exchange (MAATEX), which the company describes as the world's first regulated real-world asset exchange for agriculture, using tokenised assets to bring verification, standardisation and transparency to cross-border commodity trading. Maalexi is positioning the round as a bridge toward a Series A.
Founded in 2021 by Azam Pasha and Rohit Majhi, Maalexi built its foundation as a verification and risk-management layer for physical agricultural trade, combining AI-driven risk intelligence, IoT traceability and blockchain-secured documentation.
Over 36 months of live operations across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India and the United States, the company reports 70% repeat customers and more than 4,000 smart contracts executed and recorded on the Avalanche blockchain, alongside three patents published with the USPTO and three more under review.
The company argues that cross-border agricultural markets have historically lacked a viable exchange structure because the underlying trade was fragmented, hard to verify and non-standardised, and that its operational layer now makes one possible.
"Over the past three years, we have shown that physical agricultural trade can be verified, standardised and executed with lower risk," said co-founder and CEO Azam Pasha. "We are now building the exchange layer on top of that foundation."
Fahad Bin Muammar, Tawuniya's chief investment officer, said the insurer backs businesses that strengthen financial infrastructure, describing Maalexi as "a disciplined, risk-focused platform that connects physical agricultural trade with emerging digital asset infrastructure."
The round extends a funding ladder that has leaned heavily on debt. Maalexi raised a $3 million pre-Series A led by Global Ventures in early 2024, joining earlier backers Rockstart and Ankurit Capital, and has since layered on venture debt from Stride Ventures, a $3 million facility from Citi, and, in August 2025, a Shariah-compliant credit facility of up to $20 million from Amwal Capital Partners to scale SME food trade across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
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