Hello friends! Today, let’s dive into an exciting story about tech innovation in the Middle East. Imagine a startup that turned a tedious expense process into a smooth, AI-driven experience — that’s Alaan for you!

Founder Parthi Duraisamy, a former McKinsey consultant, saw firsthand how hard it was to manage business expenses in the Middle East. American Express cards were rarely accepted, which meant lots of out-of-pocket spending and endless receipts to upload manually. It was a real headache!

But with the launch of Alaan, he and his team created the region’s top spend management platform. They just secured a giant $48 million Series A funding, led by Peak XV Partners, with support from big names like Y Combinator and regional investors. This makes it one of the biggest Series A rounds for fintech in the area.

Despite challenges like regulatory delays, Alaan pushed forward. They were the first in the Middle East to add features like Apple Pay support for business transactions and even integrated OpenAI into their platform, which improved automation with AI-powered receipt matching, VAT extraction, and reconciliation. This has saved finance teams over 1.5 million hours!

Since launching in 2022, Alaan has processed more than 2.5 million transactions for over 1,500 companies, including major regional players. The company reports being profitable, with $10 million in revenue on $5 million spent, focusing on strong fundamentals rather than rapid growth alone.

With the new funding, Alaan plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and scale its hiring in sales, customer support, and AI automation. Their goal is to revolutionize finance teams across the Middle East, making expense management smarter and easier for everyone.