Saudi Fintech Bynow Secures US$1.2 Million From KSA-Based Merak Capital

KSA-based investment firm Merak Capital has put US$1.2 million behind Bynow, a Saudi fintech startup developing digital solutions for business payments. The investment underscores the growing momentum of enterprise-focused financial technology in the Kingdom as businesses seek to modernize how they manage cash flow. 

Launched by Rami Suliman and Ahmed Banafa in KSA in 2022, Bynow started with a business-to-business (B2B) buy now, pay later (BNPL) service that lets companies defer and split payments, giving SMEs and mid-market firms breathing room on their cash flow. However, Bynow's ambition goes well beyond installment plans, and it is currently rolling out tools to digitize the beating heart of business finance—accounts receivable and payable—all of which are still mostly manual processes across the region. 

That focus on B2B infrastructure is exactly what drew Merak Capital to invest in the company. “The B2B payments ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region has historically lagged behind consumer fintech in terms of innovation and adoption,” Abdulelah Alshareef, Vice President of Venture Capital at Merak Capital, told Inc. Arabia. “What convinced us about Bynow is that they are not trying to solve a surface-level problem. Their solution embeds itself into the daily financial operations of companies by providing cash flow flexibility, liquidity management, and digitization of accounts receivable and payable. That’s infrastructure in the truest sense, tools that businesses rely on to operate, not just to supplement their existing processes.” 

A similar runs through how Suliman, co-founder and CEO of Bynow, sees his company's offering. When asked what Bynow's “infrastructure-grade rails” mean and how it changes the way SMEs and mid-market companies operate, he replied, “It means a unified payments and credit workflow that serves both seller order-to-cash (O2C) and buyer intake-to-pay (I2P). On the O2C path, Bynow handles real-time know your business (KYB) and risk, sets dynamic limits suited to invoice-based, post-delivery trade, and automates the flow from fulfillment through secure payment requests sent after fulfillment on approved terms, invoicing, reminders, collections, and reconciliation.”  

“On the I2P path, procurement can request terms at intake, receive instant limit decisions per supplier, and route invoices through two/three-way match, approvals, and scheduled account-to-account payouts that auto-reconcile to enterprise resource planning (ERP)," he continued. "Across both, portals and application programming interfaces (APIs) give finance, sales, trade marketing, and procurement a shared, auditable ledger with localized controls for Saudi and the wider region, driving higher conversion and larger baskets, lower days sales outstanding (DSO), and fewer late fees, and materially less manual operations.” 

Merak Capital's Alshareef believes such depth is what will define the next chapter of Saudi fintech. “Saudi Arabia’s fintech sector is moving rapidly from consumer-led innovation to enterprise-grade platforms,” he said. “Over the next five years, we expect to see solutions that are deeply integrated into business and government ecosystems covering everything from payments and credit to compliance and treasury management. Bynow is well-positioned within this trajectory because it addresses a fundamental need: helping companies better manage working capital. As the Kingdom advances its Vision 2030 goals and encourages SMEs to become growth engines of the economy, B2B fintech players like Bynow will play a critical role in enabling these businesses to thrive with modern, digital-first financial workflows.” 

Alshareef also noted that Bynow's potential to evolve into something foundational was a key factor for Merak Capital's decision to invest in it. “All of those factors, product, market fit, and scalability, are important, but what ultimately differentiates a fintech in our view is its potential to become foundational," he said. "We look for solutions that address problems so critical that they become embedded in the daily operations of businesses or consumers. Early traction can be impressive, but without a long-term vision for how the product evolves into indispensable infrastructure, it rarely sustains. In ByNow’s case, the team demonstrated not only a sharp understanding of the immediate need for cash flow flexibility but also a clear ambition to digitize the broader financial workflows that drive B2B commerce. It’s that blend of necessity, vision, and execution capability that makes a company truly compelling to us.” 

The ambition doesn’t stop at Saudi borders, however, with Bynow's Suliman pointing to other markets with similar pain points and opportunities where his enterprise could add value. “We prioritize markets where dense B2B trade meets fragmented trade credit and supportive digital policy," he explained. "The GCC stands out as a regional trade hub with mature digital infrastructure across Africa; there is significant SME penetration and invoice-centric flows, and in Asia, there’s attractive SME density with familiar invoicing and distribution patterns. Sequencing is driven by localization effort (know-your-business and invoicing norms), the strength of distribution partnerships, and clarity of receivables enforcement, so we can replicate the model with speed and compliance.” 

Looking to the future, Suliman sees automation and AI as central to how B2B payments will evolve. “B2B payments are converging on account-to-account rails with rich invoice context, while the system of record shifts to automated AR/AP spanning both O2C and I2P," he said. "Invoice capture, three-way match, disputes, cash application, reconciliation, and policy controls become programmatic." He also pointed out that the next leap shall come from artificial intelligence (AI) layered on top of these processes. “Automation and AI elevate the stack: support decisioning from behavioral and transactional signals, understand point of sale (POS) and invoices to reduce back-office toil, detect anomalies and potential fraud, prioritize collections, forecast cash, and tune dynamic terms by buyer, supplier, and even stock keeping unit (SKU)," he explained. "Commercially, sales and trade marketing can align promotions and terms with predicted payment behavior, while finance, procurement, and accounts payable (AP) gain real-time risk and recovery insights and partner-ready reporting. Crucially, this also unlocks B2B credit for private-credit funders: standardized, API-level performance data and servicing telemetry make receivables financeable via forward-flow and warehouse structures, while AI-driven risk controls improve eligibility, monitoring, and covenant adherence.” 

Finally, for founders still figuring out how to break through in the fintech space, Suliman offered candid advice drawn from Bynow’s own experience. “Be bidirectional from day one, serve the seller workflow and the buyer workflow," he said. "Integrate where finance and procurement actually work (ERP/AP), and measure what matters to the business operators rather than vanity metrics. Start manually but instrument every step, then automate the loops that prove out. Stay ‘local-first’ on KYB, invoicing, and enforcement to build regulatory goodwill early. Prioritize distribution via channels and supplier networks, and underwrite relationships (not just transactions) with transparent, dynamic policies.” 

Pictured in the lead image are Bynow co-founders Ahmed Banafa and Rami Suliman. Image courtesy Bynow.