Prime Highlights
- Lean Technologies is poised to catch the UAE and India open finance and payments innovation tide.
- The fintech firm has processed more than $2 billion in transactions since its launch in 2019.
Key Fact
- Over 300 UAE and Saudi business customers leverage Lean’s API-based solutions.
- The firm has raised over $100 million, including a substantial $67.5 million round from international investors.
Key Background
Lean Technologies, which was founded in 2019, is already a market leader in the region’s growing fintech ecosystem. Lean Technologies provides vital infrastructure enabling secure, real-time connectivities between businesses and banks. Its customers on its platform are able to consume consumer-approved data in addition to making seamless digital payments—vital building blocks in the region’s new digital economy.
Led by Saudi technologist Hisham Al-Falih, Lean identified a gap in the finance sector: while smartphone penetration was high and there was an established digital startup economy, there was access to financial data on consumers unavailable to fintechs. Lean addressed the gap by offering real-time financial data integration, simple payment management, and safe account verification. These are now employed by over 300 companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Lean has processed more than $2 billion in transactions since its launch. Lean also anticipates hitting an annualized volume of UAE alone valued at $2 billion by the close of the current year. Such phenomenal growth has been fueled by a strong capital base, with Lean having raised more than $100 million. Its most recent round of funding of $67.5 million was led by the industry pioneers around the world such as Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, and Bain Capital Ventures.
In the future, Lean is positioning itself to benefit from forthcoming regulatory shifts—open finance models in the UAE and payment initiation services in Saudi Arabia. Both the launches are to be implemented in the next 12 to 18 months. Al-Falih hopes that reforms like these will push the next phase of scalability and innovation in the Gulf’s fintech sector. Lean’s future goals could include further regulation, and even a public listing, that would solidify its position as one of the region’s top digital infrastructure providers.
