Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
When Parthi Duraisamy worked at McKinsey’s Dubai office, he ran into an annoying problem. The corporate Amex cards the company relied on for travel? Useless in much of the Middle East. So he paid for work trips out of pocket. Then spent weekends sorting receipts and hunting VAT details.
“It was a constant pain,” he admits.
Fast forward to today: Parthi is now CEO of Alaan, the AI-powered spend management platform he co-founded with Karun Kurien, a fellow McKinsey alum. And this week, their startup just landed $48 million in one of the largest Series A funding rounds for a fintech in MENA.
Let me tell you how this all happened—and why it matters.
From Out-of-Pocket Frustration to Regional Leader
Alaan was born from that very pain point: outdated, manual corporate spending tools in a region with complex rules, spotty card acceptance, and lots of red tape.
Since launching in 2022, Alaan has processed more than 2.5 million transactions, serving over 1,500 finance teams across key companies like G42, Lulu Group, Tabby, and Careem.
Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash
And the numbers back it up: they’ve helped finance teams save over 1.5 million hours of manual work. That’s time teams used to spend doing things like matching receipts, reconciling spend, and navigating VAT reclaim headaches.
How? AI.
The AI Behind the Scenes—Not in Your Face
Funny enough, their first attempt at using AI was a miss. They initially launched a chatbot, thinking users would want to “talk” to their expense data.
They didn’t.
So Alaan pivoted. Now, the AI runs quietly in the background, helping with:
- Smart receipt matching
- VAT extraction
- Accurate reconciliation
It’s a subtle but smart shift. Instead of flashy features, Alaan focused on real finance admin pain points in the region. The kind that clog up weekends and lead to burnt-out finance teams.
$48 Million to Fuel the Next Chapter
This latest Series A round was led by Peak XV Partners (you might know them as the former Sequoia Capital India & SEA). Founders from Tabby, Careem, and even YouTuber Khalid Al Ameri joined in.
What’s the money for? Scaling up. Faster hiring across sales, customer support, and compliance. More AI development. And doubling down on the newest market: Saudi Arabia.
Photo by Daniel Olah on Unsplash
Even with regulatory hurdles—Duraisamy describes just “going live” as their biggest challenge—Alaan managed to secure approval to launch in Saudi in January. And they’ve been doubling transaction volumes every month since.
Early Profits in a World Focused on Volume
Unlike many fintechs chasing high transaction volumes, Alaan kept things lean. Duraisamy says they spent $5 million to generate $10 million in revenue—and yes, they’re profitable.
They credit that to lessons from Y Combinator and taking a capital-efficient mindset in a market where every dollar counts.
“When you talk to investors, what really matters for a company at our stage is the fundamentals,” Duraisamy says. “How capital-efficient we are, how much revenue we generate, how strong our go-to-market motion is.”
And it seems investors agree.
Why This Matters
If you’ve ever dealt with reconciling company spending or filing expense reports, you know how time-consuming the process can be. Multiply that at a regional enterprise level, and the hours lost really add up.
So while flashy AI features often dominate the headlines, Alaan’s focus on invisible, behind-the-scenes automation shows the real power of AI in finance: it gives you back your time.
And for a region like MENA, where VAT rules are complex and digital infrastructure varies, that’s a huge deal.
Alaan took something as dull as receipts and built one of the most exciting fintech stories out of it.
All from a few painful weekends and a very persistent founder.
Keywords: AI, Fintech, Alaan, MENA, VAT, Automation, Series A, Saudi Arabia
