Lean Technologies

Lean Technologies is a MENA open banking infrastructure company founded in 2019 by Hisham Al-Falih, Ashu Gupta and Aditya Sarkar, operating from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It exists because businesses in the region relied on cards and manual bank transfers with slow reconciliation, and lenders had no standard way to read a customer’s bank data with consent. Lean supplies both through one API reaching more than 30 banks in MENA.

The payments side covers Pay by Bank for account-to-account collection, payouts, and reconciliation and settlement tooling. The data side covers account verification, address verification and permissioned access to balances and transaction history used for underwriting and insurance pricing. Lean is authorised by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority, holds in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for Open Finance Services, and is certified to SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022. It reports over 16 billion AED processed, more than 2 million connected accounts and 350 or more clients including Careem, Tabby and DAMAC, and raised a 67.5 million US dollar Series B led by General Catalyst in 2024.

1. Pay by Bank: Initiates account-to-account collection from a customer bank account without card rails.

2. Payouts: Sends disbursements and refunds directly to verified bank accounts in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

3. Data API: Retrieves balances and transaction history under customer consent for credit and insurance decisions.

4. Account and address verification: Confirms bank account ownership and registered address before onboarding or payout.

5. Reconciliation and settlement: Matches incoming payments to orders and reports settlement status back to the merchant.

6. Regulated coverage: ADGM authorised, CBUAE in-principle approval, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022 and 30 or more MENA banks.