Wa’ed invests SAR19m in fintech startup Lamaa

Wa’ed, Saudi Aramco’s entrepreneurial arm, has announced a SAR19 million Pre-Series A investment in Lamaa, a Saudi financial firm, co-led by Raed Ventures. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) can use the company’s financing solutions, which include supply chain finance and buy now, pay later.

Sumeet Khutale, an entrepreneur who just migrated from London to Riyadh, founded the Riyadh-based firm in March 2021.

Lamaa aims to fill funding gaps for SMEs whose size makes it difficult to get credit risk ratings, which has a direct impact on their cash flow.

Lamaa would provide corporate treasuries with an alternative to deploy surplus cash through dynamic discounting of bills by enabling early invoice payment for SMEs through its digital marketplace. Alternatively, approved and unpaid bills might be listed for banks and financial institutions to clear on behalf of corporations the decreased payments.

Wa’ed and Raed’s investment will assist Lamaa to develop its Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platform, which will enable factoring across thousands of suppliers at the same time.

Its core mission is to help SME suppliers leverage shorter cash conversion cycles independent of credit history, collateral, promissory notes, corporate treasuries, or individual investors to reap a profit from early settlement.