"We Got Funded!" UAE-Based Fintech Startup Alaan Raises US$4.5 Million Founded by ex-McKinsey employees Parthi Duraisamy and Karun Kurien in August 2022, Alaan has averaged a monthly growth of 500% since then.
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UAE-based spend management platform Alaan has raised US$4.5 million in a pre-series A funding from Presight Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors. Coupled with the $2.5 million seed round it raised last year, Alaan has now received a total of $7 million in funding to date.
The new investment will be used to grow its UAE operations, expand across the GCC, as well as to enhance its product, including adding automated invoice payments to domestic and international suppliers and other features.
Founded by ex-McKinsey employees Parthi Duraisamy and Karun Kurien in August 2022, Alaan has onboarded more than 100 businesses in the UAE with a combined total of over 5,000 employees, and crossed double-digit millions in payment volume within three months of its launch and averaged a monthly growth of 500% in 2022, the company said in a statement.
Duraisamy -who is today the CEO of Alaan- said that since the last financing round, the startup has introduced a number of product innovations, including artificial intelligence-powered workflow automation for managing spend and seamless accounting sync.
"Our cashback card offers a unique benefit in the Middle East corporate card and spend management space," Duraisamy said. "With the new funds, we are excited to further enhance our offering, and expand our reach in new markets as we continue to help businesses improve their efficiency, productivity, and employee experience through Alaan."
Image courtesy Alaan.
Alaan's platform allows businesses to instantly issue physical and virtual cards for managing all their business expenses, including e-commerce transactions, software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscriptions, vendor payments, government services, or in-store purchases.
These cards can be set up with daily or monthly spend limits, and can also be locked to be used only with specific merchants such as fuel stations. The platform thus eliminates the need for expense reports and petty cash, and automates bookkeeping tasks via seamless integration with leading accounting solution providers such as Xero, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Jad Halaoui, co-founder of Washmen and a client of Alaan, chose to participate in the company's investment round after utilizing the platform for a few months. "Alaan has shaved off hours from my team members in operations, accounting, finance and even marketing," Halaoui said. "It has transformed the way money flows and is controlled at Washmen. Their product shows they have a deep understanding of what companies need to streamline their finances and governance with simplicity."
