Pluto Bags US$4.1 Million In Pre-Series A Funding Round

Pluto, a UAE-based corporate card and expense management platform, has pocketed US$4.1 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by existing and new investors, including the Vancouver-based early-stage venture capital fund Rhino Ventures, the California-based venture capital firm Born Capital, Florida’s investment firm Goanna Capital, the New York-based culture-tech venture investment firm Evolution VC, Freesearch VC, and the New York-based early-stage VC firm Tiferes VC.

The investment comes after the company recently crossed AED 1 billion ($272.257 million) in spending under its management.

Founded in 2021 by Mohammed Ridwan, Mohammed Aziz, and Nayeem Zen, Pluto combines budget tracking, AI-powered corporate cards, and procurement tools in one platform. Its flagship product, Pluto Connect, enables banks and financial institutions to integrate spend management capabilities directly into their systems, already supporting over 30,000 SMEs through partnerships. 

With the new funding, Pluto plans to expand into Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar while continuing to improve how businesses in the region manage expenses and procurement through AI technology. In Saudi Arabia, the startup plans to introduce an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered procurement and spend management platform tailored to the region. 

The funding is part of Pluto's growth strategy and follows milestones such as being the first in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) for procure to pay solutions, and being named among the top 10 providers globally in Enterprise and SMB Expense Management by the Chicago-based peer-to-peer review site G2. The company recently collaborated with neoleap by Al Rajhi Bank to expand into Saudi Arabia and partnered with Mastercard to improve B2B payment solutions across the GCC.  

In an interview with Inc. Arabia, co-founder and chief product officer Ridwan highlighted the company's inroads into Saudi Arabia, saying, “With support and past investment from our counterparts in America (Ramp, a unicorn spend management platform based out of the USA), we look to empower businesses in KSA with tools that align with their financial processes, drive compliance, and help them achieve operational excellence." 

The funding will also enable Pluto to accelerate research and development (R&D), establish local sales and support teams, and tailor its solutions to meet Saudi businesses' unique needs. "Our platform will provide comprehensive Arabic language support and fully localized payment system integration, including Mada and other region-specific requirements," Ridwan said. "Procurement and spend management tools are inherently complex, requiring a high degree of flexibility to accommodate the diverse policies and workflows of different businesses." 

Pluto also plans to enhance its AI-driven features, drawing on the expertise of its founding team, many of whom have worked on large-scale data infrastructure at companies such as Shopify, Cash App, and Uber. "This gives us a significant advantage in bringing Silicon Valley talent to MENA and building out a world-class team who can stay ahead of the curve in the rapid pace of AI development," Ridwan added. The company is also investing in open-source large language model (LLM) vendors and creating infrastructure that enables its teams to quickly develop AI-based solutions. 

Ridwan noted that demand for corporate card and expense management solutions is growing rapidly in the UAE and KSA, driven by changing approaches in CFO offices. "When we launched over three years ago, businesses in the UAE and KSA were not equipped with the insight to see the full value of automation and the importance of adopting software for operational excellence in the CFO’s office, especially compared to more mature markets like the US," he said. "We had to invest significant time in educating the market about the value of automation for processes like company expense management, budget management, and procurement." 

Ridwan says that he has since noted a generational change in leadership as younger, tech-savvy executives take over family businesses and large conglomerates creating demand for tech solutions, and driving “widespread adoption of technology across industries, further accelerating demand for solutions like Pluto.” While Pluto does not target specific sectors, Ridwan revealed that many of the startup's most active and engaged users come from industries like technology, manufacturing, retail and e-commerce, F&B, construction, oil and gas, and travel and tourism. 

To-date, Ridwan said that Pluto has relied primarily on building customer trust and advocacy, with word of mouth playing a key role in its growth. Ridwan also noted that the combination of value, affordability, and its host of comprehensive solutions has Pluto ahead of competitors, giving examples of Pluto’s two percent cashback on corporate card spending and free automation solutions for SMEs.

Photo: Pluto's co-founder and chief product officer Mohammed Ridwan. Courtesy of Pluto.

Read More: CBI Invests in zypl.ai's AI Fintech Innovations