$22 million Series A expands erad corporate financing

Corporate financing for small and midsize firms is the product Riyadh-based erad just recapitalised. On 28 September 2026 the alternative lender closed a 22 million dollar Series A, about 78.75 million riyals in the English press note, led by Middle East Venture Partners. Some Arabic write-ups used 82.5 million riyals for the same dollar figure. New names in the cap table include 500 Global, Saudi Venture Capital, S60 Ventures, ANB Capital, Conjunction Capital and Araya Ventures. Existing holders Khwarizmi Ventures, Nuwa Capital, Aljazira Capital, Oraseya Capital and Joa Capital came back. Valuation was not published. That is the punch. erad does not sell software seats. It writes Shariah-compliant working capital, up to 10 million riyals, and says approvals land in about 48 hours on data and AI underwriting. Founded in 2022 by Salem Abu-Hammour, Faris Yaghmour, Abdulmalik Almeheini and Youssef Said, it operates in Saudi Arabia and the UAE across logistics, medical supplies, wholesale, retail, manufacturing and related trades. The Series A is meant to deepen those verticals and hire technology and commercial staff across the Gulf. The operating numbers are company-reported. Business volume in the Kingdom grew eightfold year on year. Cumulative financing deployed to SMEs has passed 500 million riyals, about 133 million dollars. Requests received since launch exceed 4 billion riyals, about 1 billion dollars. Eighty-five percent of clients, the firm says, take more financing within the first year. Demand that large against a 500 million riyal book is a pipeline story, not a proof that every file should have been funded. Credit quality, defaults and cost of funds did not travel with the announcement. In November 2025 erad secured a 125 million dollar scalable facility led by Jefferies. Equity and warehouse money are different tools. The Series A buys product and people. The facility buys the capacity to actually lend. Jad El Boustani, partner at MEVP, framed the cheque around a 250 billion dollar GCC SME financing gap and a book he called high quality. Abu-Hammour has said SMEs are about half of regional GDP and two-thirds of GCC jobs, and that speed of capital is the constraint. Both statements are the sector catechism. They do not replace a vintage chart. Use of proceeds is expansion of corporate financing products, especially for industrial, logistics and manufacturing firms, plus teams. That is a working-capital push, not a consumer app. SAMA-era SME infrastructure and Vision 2030 local-content rules keep creating invoices that banks still take weeks to like. Alternative lenders live in that delay. The MENA angle is Islamic working capital as a funded asset class, not another marketplace logo. Abwab, Arib and bank digital desks are in the same queue. erad’s claim is underwriting hours, not a new licence slogan. If the Jefferies line and the 22 million dollars move together, more SAR 10 million tickets clear. If equity sits in the bank while the warehouse stays tight, the Series A only paid for slides. Caveats: 8x and 4 billion riyals of requests are unaudited in the notes used here. Requested is not approved. Shariah-compliant structure was not specified beyond the label. Forty-eight hours is an average the company cites, not a regulator service standard. If erad publishes originated volume after this round and a loss rate, corporate financing scaled. If the next update is only another Gulf city, count riyals out the door. Watch utilisation of the Jefferies facility.