Dubai-based FinTech start-up Alaan raised $2.5 million in a new investment round as the company announced it is coming out of the stealth mode. The multi-currency spends management platform said it would use the funds to increase its headcount and scale in several markets across the Middle East. The new investment round is led by California-based investment fund Presight Capital and Berlin-based venture capital firms 468 Capital and Global Founders Capital. Several angel investors also participated in the funding round. These include Mato Peric, Erik Podzuweit and Florian Prucker, founders of Scalable Capital, as well as Philippe Teixeira da Mota, founder of Hedosophia. Alaan, which was founded last year, aims to manage all company expenditure through corporate cards and automated invoice payments.
Alaan platform provides employees with corporate cards to make company purchases and automatically reconciles spending in real-time. It instantly issues virtual cards in global currencies including the UAE dirham, Saudi riyals, and the US dollar, for e-commerce transactions, subscriptions, vendor payments and in-store purchases. The platform also intends to eliminate expense reports and automates book-keeping tasks through integration with various accounting solution providers. Alaan has partnered with issuers in several countries across the region to be able to issue corporate cards. While in the stealth mode for over the past six months, the company built the product and finalized partnerships with regulated financial institutions to enable product launch, it said, adding it will soon announce the product launch in the market.