Pluto is hoping to gain traction in the region in the same way its counterparts here in the U.S. have in their home countries. Founded in October 2021, Pluto’s first product is a card designed to help businesses digitize their cash spend. It is particularly focused on meeting the needs of underserved SMBs in the region. The company is announcing that it’s just closed a $6 million seed round led by Global Founders Capital that included participation from firms such as Soma Capital, Graph Ventures, Adapt Ventures and OldSlip group. Notably, corporate spend giants in the U.S. also put money in the round, including Ramp itself (run by Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh) and Airbase founder Thejo Kote. Additional angel investors, among many others, included Plaid co-founder William Hockey, Not Boring’s Packy McCormick and MFM’s Shaan Puri.
The COVID-19 pandemic played a factor in Pluto’s formation in that it forced businesses in the region to accept cards and contactless payment methods such as tap pay, Aziz believes. That has accelerated card acceptance with 90% card acceptance rates in the UAE and Saudi Arabia by some estimates in the region. It’s taken all this time since historically, banks have been extremely reluctant to partner with fintech companies, to help co-create financial products and services. The need certainly appears to be there. In MENA, most businesses distribute cash or personal cards belonging to a manager or a business owner to employees for incurring business expenses. To avoid potential fraud, those businesses often maintain the custody of those cards with one or two individuals — usually a financial controller and/or the business owner. Employees who incur business expenses are then either reimbursed or are given managers’ personal cards or in most cases given cash. The startup plans to use its new capital to, naturally, do more hiring, as well as secure bank partnerships and licenses as it works toward launching Pluto in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the short-term and in Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in the longer term.