erad
Riyadh-based fintech founded in 2022 that provides Shariah-compliant working capital to small and medium-sized businesses in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with approvals in about 48 hours. It raised a $22 million Series A in September 2026.
Industry: SME working capital financing | Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Founded: 2022 | Total Funding: USD 73.4M
About erad
erad is a Riyadh-based fintech that provides Shariah-compliant working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It was founded in 2022 by Salem Abu-Hammour, Faris Yaghmour, Abdulmalik Almeheini and Youssef Said, and went through Y Combinator's summer 2022 batch. Its clients come from sectors including retail, healthcare, food and beverage, e-commerce, logistics, medical supplies, wholesale and manufacturing. The company uses its own data models and AI-based underwriting to approve funding in about 48 hours on average, without collateral, and offers ticket sizes of up to SAR 10 million. Its embedded-finance model is designed to place working capital at the point of sale.
erad raised a USD 2.4 million pre-seed round in 2022 from Nuwa Capital, VentureSouq and Khwarizmi Ventures. In April 2025 it announced a USD 16 million (SAR 60 million) pre-Series A round with investors including Y Combinator, Nuwa Capital, Khwarizmi Ventures, Aljazira Capital, VentureSouq, Oraseya Capital and Joa Capital. At that point it said it had supported businesses with more than SAR 100 million in funding.
In September 2025 erad closed a USD 33 million debt round led by India's Stride Ventures during Money20/20 in Riyadh, to expand in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In November 2025 it announced a scalable USD 125 million facility led by Jefferies with co-investment from Channel Capital. Jefferies described it as its first asset-backed SME financing transaction in the Gulf, and Channel Capital called it its first major Shariah-compliant deal in Saudi Arabia. Funding for Saudi SMEs is channelled through direct financing funds licensed by the Capital Market Authority and managed by Erad Partners Capital.
On 28 September 2026 erad closed a USD 22 million (SAR 78.75 million) Series A led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP). New investors were 500 Global, Saudi Venture Capital, S60 Ventures, ANB Capital, Conjunction Capital and Araya Ventures, and existing backers Khwarizmi Ventures, Nuwa Capital, Aljazira Capital, Oraseya Capital and Joa Capital returned. No valuation was published. The money is earmarked for new corporate financing products, especially for industrial, logistics and manufacturing firms, for further GCC expansion and for hiring technology and commercial staff. MEVP partner Jad El Boustani pointed to a USD 250 billion SME financing gap in the GCC.
The company reports that its Saudi business grew eightfold year on year, after a six-fold figure cited in late 2025, and that cumulative financing to SMEs has passed SAR 500 million, about USD 133 million. It says requests since launch exceed SAR 4 billion and that 85 percent of clients take further financing within their first year. These figures are company-reported; erad has not published default rates or cost of funds.
Leadership
- Salem Abu-Hammour, Co-founder
- Faris Yaghmour, Co-founder
- Youssef Said, Co-founder
- Abdulmalik Almeheini, Co-founder