Abwab.ai

Riyadh-based fintech that sells AI software for credit decisioning, loan origination and portfolio monitoring to banks and other SME lenders in Saudi Arabia. It raised a $4 million seed round led by Speedinvest in 2026.

Industry: SME lending infrastructure | Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Founded: 2023 | Total Funding: USD 4M

About Abwab.ai

Abwab.ai is a Riyadh-based fintech that builds infrastructure for small and medium-sized enterprise lending in Saudi Arabia. Founder and chief executive Baraa Koshak started the company in 2022. Its platform lets banks, finance companies, fintechs and funds automate credit decisioning, digital loan origination and portfolio monitoring for micro, small and medium enterprise credit. Abwab does not lend itself and does not hold loans on its own balance sheet; it sells the decisioning layer to institutions that carry the credit risk.

The product is described as API-first and does not require lenders to replace their core systems. It keeps an audit trail designed around Saudi Central Bank expectations and brings SIMAH credit bureau and VAT data into the decision file. Koshak has said the idea came from his time at Revolut, where he saw the potential of using cash-flow data to assess businesses that lack formal credit histories.

On 3 September 2026, during the LEAP conference in Riyadh, Abwab.ai announced a USD 4M seed round, about SAR 15M. Arab News, citing a company statement, reported that Speedinvest led the round, its first investment in Saudi Arabia, and that Middle East Venture Partners participated; some other outlets described the two firms as co-leads. The company said the money would fund new products, a larger engineering and machine-learning team in Riyadh and entry into further GCC markets. It has also named Egypt, the UAE and the UK as expansion markets.

The company has published several volume figures. Arab News reported that financial institutions using its technology had processed more than SAR 10B in SME loans across more than 10 institutions in the Kingdom, while company website material cited more than SAR 1B across more than 13 lenders. In a September 2025 interview reported by Sharikat Mubasher, Koshak set a target of processing more than SAR 100B in SME loans by 2026, which was an ambition rather than a booked figure. Processed volume is loan value handled by client lenders, not Abwab revenue or its own originations. The website also claims faster decisions, lower cost per case and fewer defaults; no client lender has published comparable figures.

Institutions associated with the platform have included Saudi SME Bank, Abdul Latif Jameel Finance, Lendo, Hala Financing, Kafalah and Raqamyah. The team includes people with backgrounds at Hala, Revolut, NVIDIA and local banks.

The company operates in a growing market: Saudi Central Bank data show SME lending in the Kingdom reached SAR 489.2B in the first quarter of 2026, up 28 percent year on year. Abwab positions itself as an underwriting layer for institutions that must meet SME lending targets, rather than a balance-sheet lender.

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