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Alaan, the UAE spend management platform, has launched a business bank account embedded directly into its platform, powered by ruya's Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure.
Alaan says the product is the first in the region to combine corporate cards, local and cross-border supplier payments, invoice automation and accounting in a single AI-native workflow.
The account gives businesses Shariah-compliant digital banking inside the Alaan platform, with local UAE transfers and fee-free cross-border payments to more than 40 countries, automated extraction of vendor, VAT, due-date and line-item data from invoices on arrival, duplicate-invoice flagging, approval routing with an audit trail, and direct syncing to accounting platforms including Odoo, Zoho, Xero and QuickBooks. Businesses can also receive inbound customer payments into the same account.
The account is issued by Ruya Community Islamic Bank, which is regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. Headquartered in Ajman and launched in 2024, ruya is licensed by the central bank as a Specialised Bank.
The launch follows Alaan's commitment last month of AED 3 million to cover utility and telco bills for UAE businesses, and forms part of what the company frames as a goal of building the financial operating system for businesses in the region.
Founded in 2022 by former McKinsey consultants Parthi Duraisamy and Karun Kurien, Alaan is backed by Y Combinator and serves thousands of finance teams at organisations including G42, Careem, Tabby, McDonald's and Al Barari.
The company raised a $48 million Series A led by Peak XV Partners in August 2025, one of the largest early-stage fintech rounds in MENA to date, with the capital earmarked for expansion beyond spend management into a broader AI-driven finance operations platform.
The UAE launch comes after Alaan paused its Saudi operations earlier this year. According to reporting, the company was among several fintechs, alongside Pemo and Pluto, caught in a Saudi crackdown on card issuance after SAMA ordered card issuer Neoleap, a subsidiary of Al Rajhi Bank, to suspend its BIN sponsorship programme in December 2025. Alaan, which used Neoleap as its card-issuing provider in the Kingdom, refuted earlier reports that it had exited the market, saying it had put operations on pause instead.
Alaan cites UAE company formation as the backdrop, with the country adding 250,000 new companies in 2025 and the total number of businesses in the Middle East passing 1.4 million.
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