UAE-based FinTech and multi-currency spend management startup Alaan launched with a $2.5M Seed Round that was led by 468 Capital, Global Founders Capital, and Presight Capital, to optimize and facilitate corporate spend in the Middle East.
The Seed round was led by 468 Capital, Global Founders Capital, and Presight Capital with participation from a number of angel investors including Mato Peric, Erik Podzuweit, and Florian Prucker, founders of Scalable Capital as well as Philippe Teixeira da Mota, founder of Hedosophia.
“Although more than 97% of all business entities in the Middle East are SMEs, they are largely underserved by traditional financial institutions. We were impressed by Parthi and Karun’s vision to help SMEs in the region digitize their payment flow using an exceptional platform that we believe is set to revolutionize spend management.”
~ Ludwig Ensthaler, General Partner 468 Capital
Parthi Duraisamy and Karun Kurien, ex-McKinsey employees founded Alaan in 2021, with the aim to transform the processing of business expenses through its platform that automatically reconciles spending in real-time.
“We founded Alaan after experiencing first-hand the frustrating expense and invoice management processes. We have solved critical pain points in the end-to-end payment flow by building a software layer on top of the regulated banking infrastructure.”
~ Karun Kurien, Co-founder and Head of Product and Technology, Alaan
Alaan presents a smart way to manage business spend that eliminates cash, expense reports, physical receipts and reimbursements. It instantly issues multi-currency virtual cards that can be used for e-commerce transactions, SaaS subscriptions, vendor payments or in-store purchases.
“At Alaan, our vision is to offer SMEs and entrepreneurs an innovative platform to manage company spend, be it through card rails or account-to-account rails. In markets such as the UAE, over 80% of consumer payments are digital. But when it comes to business payments, we haven’t seen the substantial transformation, and the old world of offline payments still rules. This is where Alaan comes in. We enable businesses to manage expenses smartly, seamlessly, and digitize their payment flow.”
~ Parthi Duraisamy, CEO and Co-Founder Alaan
The latest acquired funds would be channelled to expand its headcount and scale in multiple markets across the Middle East.