Dubai-based Pemo bags $12m funding to help regional SMEs

• Startup helps save money and time while empowering team members to make purchasing decisions quickly and responsibly.
• The funding round was led by Cherry Ventures and Shorooq Partners, with participation from FinTech Collective, Speedinvest, BY Venture Partners, Antler and other angel investors. 
• Pemo is looking to establish operations in Saudi Arabia and later extend its geographical footprint into Egypt and Pakistan.

Dubai-based Fintech startup – Pemo  – has raised $12 million in a Seed round to accelerate its product development and expand across the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAP).

The funding round was led by Cherry Ventures and Shorooq Partners, with participation from FinTech Collective, Speedinvest, BY Venture Partners, Antler and other angel investors. 

The startup, co-founded by Ayham Gorani, Valerie Konde, Alessandro Duri and Saed Ghorani, offers fast, transparent and simplified invoice payment and expense management solutions, as well as smart corporate cards, for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region.

“We’re operating in a region where more than 90 per cent of businesses are SMEs, many of which rely heavily on multiple platforms, processes and entities. We are removing this day-to-day friction by combining all spend management functions in one hub,”Ayham Gorani, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pemo, said.

Moreover, he said the platform helps businesses to save money and time while empowering team members to make purchasing decisions quickly and responsibly.

Full visibility

 “In the presently available software stack, expense management for companies and employee access to credit or debit cards continues to feel broken and Pemo is the team to fix it,” Filip Dames, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures, said.

Users can soon avail of physical and virtual prepaid cards that can be topped up and distributed to employees.

Through integration into the Pemo app, the prepaid card will automatically categorise employee expenses, capture receipts for each transaction, and offer business owners and management teams full visibility of corporate spending.

Over the past two years, corporate spend startups across the US, Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America have been on the radar of the most prominent venture capital funds.

Mahmoud Adi, Founding Partner at Shorooq Partners, said that the founders’ customer-centric approach and a strong commitment to growth make it the right team to back them in the region’s expense management space. 

Pemo is looking to establish operations in Saudi Arabia and later extend its geographical footprint into Egypt and Pakistan.

 “We’re grateful to have the backing of incredible investors who are bringing a wealth of industry experience and market knowledge to the table. In particular, it’s hugely beneficial for us to have the support of founders who have successfully built expense management platforms in other markets, and we are looking forward to working closely with them, and our VC partners, as we expand our offering,” Gorani said.

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