Stitch, a Saudi-headquartered fintech building unified infrastructure for financial products, has just closed a $10 million seed round, a strong signal that the Middle East is ready to lead the next phase of fintech innovation.
The round attracted prominent global and regional investors including Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), along with participation from family offices and industry veterans like Jason Gardner, founder of Marqeta, and Abdulmalik AlSheikh, architect of Saudi Arabia’s mada and Sadad payment systems.
The capital injection will fuel Stitch’s mission to modernise how institutions launch financial services, a growing necessity in a region where digital payments are booming. In Saudi Arabia alone, banking assets have surged to $1.12 trillion, and digital payments grew 75% between 2019 and 2021. According to industry forecasts, the global banking and financial services sector is set to exceed $221 billion by 2033.
“At Stitch, our vision is to reinvent how financial and non-financial institutions bring banking and payment products to market,” said Mohamed Oueida, Founder and CEO. “Businesses are forced to navigate outdated legacy systems and complex regulatory frameworks… It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Stitch’s API-First Platform Targets Middle East
Designed specifically with the region’s challenges in mind, Stitch offers an API-driven platform that simplifies the process of building, scaling, and launching financial services, cutting time-to-market by up to 80%. The solution is already powering clients in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and has started expanding into East Africa, with Kenya as the first stop.
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With major clients like Lulu Exchange, Alamoudi Exchange, Foodics, Raya Financing, and Tanmeya Capital on board, Stitch is positioning itself as the go-to infrastructure partner for financial and non-financial institutions alike, whether banks, fintech startups, or large enterprises.
“As emerging markets digitalise their financial services, we believe the next generation of technology infrastructure will come from places like Saudi Arabia,” said Khaled Lababidi, Partner at Arbor Ventures. “Stitch is a clear example of this shift, combining local expertise with global standards to support institutions across emerging markets.”
Wael Nafee, General Partner at Raed Ventures, added, “For the first time, financial institutions in the region have a local infrastructure partner that was built from the ground up with their realities in mind. Stitch is setting a new standard for how financial products should be built.”
Founded in 2022, Stitch’s team includes seasoned professionals from global fintech leaders like FIS, Geidea, NPCI India, and Al Rajhi Bank. Backed by strong regional support and global ambition, the company is aiming to become a cornerstone of financial innovation across MENA and other emerging markets.
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