Saudi Arabias Raqamyah raises $2.3mln in funding

Raqamyah is a financial technology (fintech) startup which connects small businesses with financiers and has facilitated more than 40 loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a year.

Small companies can apply for funding through the platform and once approved within three days their needs are listed for financiers to assess.

Once an agreement has been reached, lenders begin receiving repayments, with SMEs able to make monthly installments through ATMs and other digital payment methods.

“Peer-to-peer lending is one of the fastest-growing areas in fintech and it is at its early stages in terms of innovation and disruption,” Ammar Bakheet, the founder and CEO of Raqamyah, told the Megabytes website.

Impact46 is an asset manager and adviser specialized in alternative investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia.

The Kingdom recorded a 35 percent year-on-year increase in the number of investment deals in the technology startup sector last year, according to a study by data research platform Magnitt.

And the country accounted for 18 percent of the 496 investment deals throughout the Middle East and North Africa last year. In terms of the total value of deals, Saudi Arabia saw a surge of 55 percent year-on-year to $152 million.