Saudi Arabia-based fintech Nayla has secured approximately $18 million in pre-Series A funding, combining equity and debt financing, as the company looks to expand access to digital financing for micro-businesses across the Kingdom.
The round comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is seeking to deepen financial inclusion and accelerate the growth of small and micro-enterprises as part of its broader economic transformation. Nayla is positioning its AI-powered lending platform to address one of the most persistent challenges facing these businesses: accessing financing quickly and digitally. The equity component was led by Idrisi Ventures, with participation from Suhail Ventures and other strategic investors, while BLOMINVEST led the debt facility.
From Sanabil Studio To Institutional Funding
Founded in 2024 by Shaqran Alyahya and Khalid Naili, Nayla was built through Sanabil Studio, an initiative designed to create and launch technology ventures targeting opportunities in Saudi Arabia.
The latest financing represents a significant milestone for the venture studio itself. Nayla says it is the first company launched through Sanabil Studio to close an institutional funding round, giving the startup a new level of capital and backing as it enters its next stage of growth. The company previously secured $4 million in seed funding in 2024, led by Sanabil Venture Studio by Stryber. The new pre-Series A round substantially increases the capital available to Nayla as it develops its lending technology and expands its customer base.
Building AI-Powered Lending For Micro-Businesses
At the centre of Nayla’s proposition is an AI-powered lending platform designed specifically for micro-businesses in Saudi Arabia. For many smaller businesses, traditional financing can involve lengthy applications, extensive documentation and processes that are not designed around the speed at which entrepreneurs operate. Nayla is attempting to use technology and artificial intelligence to make financing more accessible through a faster, digital-first experience.
Rather than treating technology as simply another channel for conventional lending, the company is building its platform around AI-enabled lending products. Its objective is to make financing decisions and access more efficient while expanding the pool of businesses that can be served digitally. That focus places Nayla within a broader wave of Saudi fintech companies attempting to modernise financial services around the needs of entrepreneurs and smaller businesses.
A Larger Opportunity In Saudi Arabia
Micro-businesses occupy an increasingly important position in Saudi Arabia’s economic landscape. As the Kingdom diversifies beyond oil and encourages entrepreneurship, smaller companies are becoming an important part of employment, innovation and economic activity.
Yet growth often depends on access to working capital. Businesses may have demand and viable operations but still struggle to obtain financing quickly enough to purchase inventory, manage cash flow or pursue expansion opportunities. Nayla is targeting that gap with a model built around digital financing and AI. The opportunity is therefore not simply to create another lending product, but to build financial infrastructure that can make credit more responsive to the realities of smaller businesses.
$18 Million To Accelerate The Platform
Nayla plans to deploy the new capital primarily toward accelerating its AI-powered lending products and expanding financing availability for micro-businesses across Saudi Arabia.
The combination of equity and debt gives the company two forms of capital to support that ambition. Equity can provide the resources required to build technology, teams and distribution, while debt financing can support the lending side of the business as Nayla expands its financing activity. The company has not disclosed detailed lending volumes or portfolio metrics alongside the latest funding announcement. Its next phase will therefore be closely watched for how quickly it can translate the fresh capital into customer growth, financing deployment and product expansion.
Building For Saudi Arabia’s Next Generation Of Businesses
Nayla’s trajectory also reflects the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s startup ecosystem. A venture launched through a local studio has moved from seed financing to an institutional pre-Series A round within roughly two years of its founding.
Its strategy is closely aligned with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 ambitions, particularly the push to strengthen entrepreneurship, digital financial services and the contribution of smaller businesses to the economy. For Nayla, the bigger ambition is to make financing more accessible to the businesses that traditionally find the financial system hardest to navigate. With approximately $18 million in fresh capital, the company now has the resources to test that proposition at significantly greater scale.
