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erad, a Riyadh-based fintech that provides Shariah-compliant working-capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has raised a $22 million (SAR 78.75 million) Series A led by MEVP, the company announced on 28 September 2026.
The round, and who’s actually backing it
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Amount raised | $22 million (SAR 78.75 million), Series A |
| Lead investor | MEVP |
| New investors | 500 Global, Saudi Venture Capital (SVC), S60 Ventures, ANB Capital, Conjunction Capital, Araya Ventures |
| Returning investors (increased stake) | Khwarizmi Ventures, Nuwa Capital, Aljazira Capital, Oraseya Capital, Joa Capital |
| Founded | 2022, Riyadh, by Salem Abu-Hammour, Faris Yaghmour, Abdulmalik Almeheini and Youssef Said |
| What it does | Shariah-compliant working-capital financing up to SAR 10 million per SME, using AI-driven underwriting to approve applications in an average of 48 hours |
erad, a Riyadh-based Shariah-compliant working-capital lender for SMEs in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has raised a $22 million Series A led by MEVP, with new and returning investors including 500 Global, SVC and Khwarizmi Ventures.
The round follows a year in which erad’s Saudi business grew eightfold, and the company has now deployed more than SAR 500 million ($133 million) in total financing.
erad has received over SAR 4 billion ($1 billion) in financing requests from SMEs to date, meaning the SAR 500 million it has actually deployed covers roughly an eighth of demand it says it’s seen.
Jad EL Boustani, MEVP partner, framed the bet on erad’s execution rather than just the market opportunity:
“We’re backing erad because they’re addressing the GCC’s $250 billion SME financing gap while building a sustainable, high-quality financing business. What gives us the most conviction is the team: Salem and the founding team have paired real domain expertise with disciplined execution, turning a clear market need into 8x year-over-year growth in Saudi and a 48-hour approval engine that scales.”
Salem Abu-Hammour, erad‘s co-founder, said:
“What excites me most is where we go from here which is deeper into new sectors, into new products that did not exist before, and powering the businesses that are scaling across the region.”
The growth number underneath the round
erad’s Saudi operations grew eightfold over the past year, and the company has deployed more than SAR 500 million ($133 million) in total financing to SMEs since its 2022 founding. erad says it has received over SAR 4 billion ($1 billion) in financing requests from SMEs, which puts the SAR 500 million it has actually deployed at roughly an eighth of the demand it says has come through its own pipeline. That gap, between requested and deployed financing, is erad’s own stated argument for why it needs more capital to lend.
erad says 85% of its clients take on additional financing within their first year, and it plans to use the new capital to build products for capital-intensive sectors, industrial, logistics and manufacturing, in addition to hiring across technology and commercial roles across the GCC.
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Why it matters
A Saudi-founded lender that already operates in the UAE, rather than a UAE-founded company expanding into Saudi Arabia, is the less common direction this kind of cross-border SME financing story usually takes. erad’s own framing of the GCC’s SME financing gap at $250 billion, echoed by its lead investor, is a market-sizing claim large enough that it’s worth remembering as erad’s own most-repeated statistic, not an independently audited figure.
What’s next
erad hasn’t disclosed a valuation for this round, a specific breakdown of how much of the $22 million is earmarked for the UAE market specifically versus Saudi Arabia, or a timeline for when the new industrial/logistics/manufacturing financing products actually launch. Whether the eightfold Saudi growth rate is repeatable in the UAE, a market with its own established SME lenders already active, is the concrete thing worth watching next.
FAQs
What is Shariah-compliant SME financing?
Working-capital financing structured to comply with Islamic finance principles, which prohibit charging or paying interest (riba). Lenders like erad typically use profit-sharing, cost-plus-markup (murabaha) or leasing-based structures instead of conventional interest-bearing loans to serve businesses that require Shariah-compliant products.
How does erad’s underwriting process work?
erad uses AI-driven data analysis to assess an SME’s finances and deliver a lending decision in an average of 48 hours, rather than the multi-week timelines typical of conventional bank SME lending, for working-capital loans of up to SAR 10 million.
Which markets does erad operate in?
Saudi Arabia and the UAE. erad is headquartered in Riyadh and was founded there in 2022; this Series A is intended in part to fund further GCC expansion beyond its two current markets.
Who invested in erad’s Series A?
MEVP led the round. New investors include 500 Global, Saudi Venture Capital (SVC), S60 Ventures, ANB Capital, Conjunction Capital and Araya Ventures. Returning investors Khwarizmi Ventures, Nuwa Capital, Aljazira Capital, Oraseya Capital and Joa Capital all increased their existing stakes.
Editor’s Take: erad has deployed SAR 500 million in financing against SAR 4 billion in requests it says it received, meaning it has met roughly an eighth of its own stated demand, the fact worth sitting with more than the $22 million headline or the eightfold Saudi growth rate. Boustani’s quote is the stronger of the two on record: it names a specific figure (the $250 billion regional gap), a specific mechanism (the 48-hour approval engine), and ties his conviction to the founding team’s execution rather than to market size alone.