The global expense management industry is experiencing something of a tailwind. North America is arguably the largest market in this space, but spend management firms have seen increased demand around the world thanks to rising web penetration, technological advances and firms’ increasing emphasis on spending correctly.
Indeed, the area is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% by 2030, according to Grand View Research, and adoption in other regions comparable to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is expected to increase as firms increasingly adopt expense management tools to get a clearer picture of where their money is being spent.
A simplified financial solutions company based in Saudi Arabia (SiFi), one such spend management platform in the MENA region, has now raised $10 million in a seed funding round to double its growth plans in its home market. The round was led by Sanabil Investments, a member of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, and MENA VC, RAED Ventures, an early-stage MENA VC company.
Founded in 2021 by Ahmed Alhakbani, SiFi helps organizations manage all their expenses, including supplier and bill payments, and plans to expand its operations after receiving an electronic money institution (EMI) license from the Arab Central Bank (SAMA) last yr. The company plans to use the license to provide a suite of services, including e-wallets and corporate smart cards.
Alhakbani told TechCrunch that he thought about starting SiFi when he was working as a customs chief in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He saw firsthand how fragmented spending management was at headquarters and at entry points into the Kingdom, making it doubly difficult to track and control spending, and even leaving room for abuse.
SiFi’s product allows customers to control their corporate card usage and limit spending at the merchant or geographic level. The platform also enables employees, especially those that do not use company cards, to submit claims for reimbursement of their expenses and invoices.
Alhakbani said the platform helps firms avoid spend management issues comparable to human error, fraud, lack of proper workflows, approval delays and lack of spend visibility. “We consider SiFi can play a very necessary role in enabling finance departments to turn into more efficient in serving the remainder of the business. We want to go beyond just expenses and reach for a full package of solutions for company expenses,” he said.
He said SiFi is building a solution that may have the ability to scale beyond Saudi Arabia because the technology stack allows for integration with any market. However, he noted that growth outside Saudi Arabia could be the goal.
SiFi’s competitors in the MENA region include Saudi-based Sanad, UAE-based Pemo, which raised a significant seed round in 2022, and Alaan.
Other investors that participated in SiFi’s seed round include anb Seed, Rua Ventures, Byld and KBW ventures, and existing VCs Khwarizmi Ventures, Seedra Ventures and Tech Invest Com.
SiFi joins a growing list of Saudi startups that have raised a significant amount of capital this yr, at the same time as VCs have scaled back operations globally. The country still does it take the lead in terms of enterprise investment in the MENA region, spurred by government pressure create a favorable environment for innovators and businesses because it seeks to diversify its revenue sources and reduce its dependence on oil.