Wa’ed, the entrepreneurial arm of Saudi Arabian oil giant Saudi Aramco, along with Riyadh-based Raed Ventures has invested $5.5 million in the Saudi fintech startup Lamaa, and it will be used to boost the company’s trading platform and fuel expansion in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) region, according to media reports.
The latest series of funding is one of the largest seed rounds in the Kingdom and these funds will also be used to expand its business to the UAE, Egypt and Qatar. Lamaa provides financing solutions such as Supply Chain Finance & B2B Buy Now Pay Later plans for SMEs. The company also plans to create a more efficient working capital management for suppliers, while maximising return on the treasury for corporate, which is in line with the Saudi Vision 2030.
Sumeet Khutale, founder and CEO of Lamaa told the media, “Since our initial launch in March 2021, Lamaa has grown dramatically, with over 100 corporate clients in the pipeline and a projection of over $1 billion worth of invoices to be soon launched in its marketplace. In addition, to supply chain finance, we will soon start offering B2B Buy Now Pay Later plans, which would be the first offering of its kind in the region. We also plan to expand our company into Egypt, UAE and Qatar in the next few months.”
Established in early 2021, Lamaa aims to address the funding gap observed in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whose size represents a challenge in obtaining credit risk ratings, thereby having a direct impact on cash flow. By enabling early invoice payment for SMEs through its digital marketplace, Lamaa plans to offer corporate treasuries with an option to deploy surplus funds through dynamic discounting of invoices.