Phototech "shoveler" Sequoia Capital finalized the first Gulf country investment in the company's history

Financial Associated Press (Shanghai, editor Shi Zhengcheng) news, the Middle East local time on Thursday, Saudi Arabia-based financial technology company Lean Technologies issued a statement confirming that the company has completed a $33 million Series A financing. Although the amount alone is not outstanding, what makes the global investment community prick up is that this investment is led by Sequoia Capital, which is also the first investment of well-known venture capital in the Gulf countries.

Lean's main business is to provide a unified API interface for financial institutions to the B-side, enabling fintech companies to obtain users' banking data and provide financial services. In layman's terms, Lean provides fintech entrepreneurs with a "conduit" of key data infrastructure services. Also on the company's list of investors is Jeff Immelt, the former chairman of General Electric.

Lean has been established less than three years ago as a "gateway to the financial markets of the Middle East", but its business scope has expanded from Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Cairo and London. CEO Hisham Al-Falih mentioned in an interview with CNBC hosts that international investment in Gulf fintech companies has grown rapidly over the past few years, and he hopes that institutions like Sequoia can make more investments in the region.

Regarding the business environment of fintech in the Middle East, Hisham said that the region's fintech ecosystem has matured rapidly in the past 18 months, and the COVID-19 epidemic has significantly accelerated the relevant changes. Fintech investment in the region has reached nearly $400 million in 2021, almost three times as much as the previous year, enough to show investor confidence and excitement about the market.

Due to the ongoing "open banking transformation" in the Middle East, which allows companies to connect consumer bank accounts through platforms such as Lean to make instant transfers, such "shovel-selling" companies have become a feast for investors. Tarabut Gateway, based in Saudi Arabia and North Africa, also received investment from Tiger Global Capital last year.

Of course, Lean's management background is also a plus in the eyes of investors. The company's founders include current CEO Hisham Al-Falih and his roommates Ashu Gupta and Aditya Sarkar at Stanford University, whose father is Khalid Al-Falih, the bay area's leading leader, who served as Saudi energy minister and chairman of Saudi Aramco, as well as the current Saudi investment minister.

Although Sequoia is an established financial institution, the company has not been in the Middle East for a long time. The company's investment in Egyptian digital bank Telda took its first steps last May, and last week there were also rumors that Sequoia was interested in participating in a new round of funding from Turkey's internet delivery platform Getir.