When Parthi Duraisamy worked as a consultant at McKinsey’s Dubai office, he often found American Express cards weren’t accepted in the Middle East, making
expense management a burden. Determined to address this, Duraisamy— alongside fellow McKinsey alumnus Karun Kurien—founded Alaan, an expense
management platform that’s quickly become a leader in the region. Alaan just raised $48 million in Series A funding, with Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) leading the round. The raise marks one of the largest Series A rounds for fintech firms in MENA, attracting prominent investors including Y Combinator, founders of 885 Capital, 468 Capital, Pioneer Fund, and notable regional entrepreneurs such as the founders of Tabby and Careem. Despite an early $2.5 million seed round in 2021, Alaan’s launch was delayed nearly a year due to regulatory and banking challenges, both in the UAE and later in Saudi Arabia. Overcoming these hurdles, Alaan has expanded rapidly, introducing features like Apple Pay integration for B2B finance teams and becoming the first in the Middle East to weave OpenAI technology into its platform. Though their initial
AI-powered chatbot didn’t catch on, the company pivoted to deploying AI-driven automation in the background, helping users with tasks like receipt matching and VAT extraction. Since its launch in 2022, Alaan has processed over 2.5 million transactions for more than 1,500 finance teams—including major enterprises like G42, Careem, Tabby, and Lulu Group—while claiming to have saved finance teams upwards of 1.5 million hours of manual work. Notably, the company is already profitable, having spent $5 million to generate $10 million in revenue, underscoring capital efficiency and robust business fundamentals.
With the fresh funding, Alaan plans to accelerate its growth in Saudi Arabia—where transaction volumes have doubled month-over-month for half a year—and scale its team, with a strong focus on sales, compliance, and further AI-powered automation. According to Duraisamy, Alaan’s effectiveness and efficiency, rather than industry hype, convinced investors to make such a significant commitment.
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