"We Got Funded!" UAE-Based Pemo Is Set To Further Transform The Regional Spend Management Sector Following A US$6.5 Million Pre-Series A Round "We provide a great solution with Pemo, as we automate the whole spend management process, right from payment, to expense submission and approval, to account reconciliation."

Pemo, a UAE-headquartered spend management platform that caters specifically to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the MENAP region, has raised US$6.5 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Augmentum Fintech, a UK-based fintech-focused venture capital (VC) firm, and Shorooq, a UAE-based multi-dimensional investment firm.

Launched in May 2022 by Ayham Gorani, Alessandro Duri, Saed Ghorani, and Valerie Konde, Pemo has been designed as a one-stop-solution for businesses to efficiently automate expense management operations. To do this, it offers a suite of services including pre-paid corporate cards, invoice payment systems and corporate expense tracking software. "SMEs are all too often worn down by cumbersome, manual processes such as expense management," notes Ayham, who is also the CEO. "There are so many inefficiencies when it comes to expenses: lost receipts, incorrectly logged documents, and lengthy approval processes that can cause major headaches to finance teams who are often already stretched as it is. We provide a great solution with Pemo, as we automate the whole spend management process, right from payment, to expense submission and approval, to account reconciliation. We provide corporate cards that take the hassle away from the process. In doing so, we can provide full visibility and control of employees expenses (including setting limits on spending), meaning that the business has more time to focus on growing the company and less time to spend on inefficient processes that become real 'time drains.'"-

Now, this latest funding announcement follows Pemo's completion of AED1.4 billion in annualized transactions. In the same year it was launched, the startup also raised $12 million in a seed round led by Cherry Ventures, a Germany-headquartered VC firm, and the aforementioned Shorooq. Pemo has also clinched an impressive customer base of over 4,000 companies in the UAE alone, including the likes of Movenpick, Conde Nast, Anantara Hotels and Resorts, and L'eto. As such, the Pemo team has felt largely validated and encouraged by these milestones. "Pemo's growth story has been nothing short of remarkable, and in its relatively short lifespan, and I've been proud to help drive its expansion over the last two and a half years," Ayham adds. "As a homegrown UAE startup, we have rapidly established Pemo as a transformative force in the fintech landscape, delivering an all-in-one spend management solution tailored to the unique needs of businesses in the Middle East and beyond. The SME ecosystem in the UAE is thriving, with almost 94% of businesses in the country being SMEs, providing a strong market for Pemo to tap into– and we're now looking forward to strengthening our presence in markets beyond the UAE. We've been lucky to have had many milestones since we launched the business, and all of them have been a testeament to the hard work of our team, which operates with a 'customer first' mentality. Bringing all of this together was the award we received from Entrepreneur Middle East in September this year, as we were named Best Expense Management Solution of the Year– a marker of the work and dedication of our team."

Source: Pemo

Indeed, one of the main areas of allocation for Pemo's new funds is geographical expansion. And according to Ayham, moving forward, the startup's ability to fully incorporate the clients needs will remain its most formidable asset owing to the fact that Pemo's founding team -a mix of serial entrepreneurs, Rocket Internet and Google alumni- has collectively launched/scaled more than eight ventures. "We know only too well how inefficient processes can slow the whole business operation down," he adds. "We also know the importance of having a solid customer-centric approach to the way we work, and this is the real benefit of using Pemo. We put the customer at the heart of what we do. And with the 4,000 customers we now have on board, we have always been careful to never compromise on our service levels. Testament to this is our G2 rating [customer satisfaction scores and reviews published on G2, an online software marketplace and review platform] of 4.8, which shows our dedication to delivering great customer service and products."

Such confidence shown by the end-users, and the achievements Pemo has already clinched along the way, have certainly played a role in gaining the trust of its lead investors. "We believe Pemo is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in driving economic growth across the Middle East, a region we are closely monitoring and where we see considerable opportunity and exciting developments in the fintech space," said Augmentum Fintech CEO Tim Levene in a statement."With our extensive expertise and network in the fintech sector, we are excited to support Pemo as they embark on this next phase, unlocking the market's vast potential through transforming expense management and corporate payments, and accelerating the growth of SMEs on a global scale."

Related: "We Got Funded!" KSA-Based Lean Technologies' US$67.5 Million Series B Round Marks Silicon Valley-based General Catalyst's Debut Investment in the Kingdom

Sharing similar sentiments was Dr. Bilal Baloch, Partner at Shorooq, added: "Pemo has been on an exciting journey from day one. We recognised the potential of the business early on, building a value creation plan for the company, and it's been great to see them go from strength to strength under the leadership of stellar co-founders."

Pemo's co-founding team (left to right): Ayham Gorani, Saed Ghorani, Valerie Konde, and Alessandro Duri. Source: Pemo

For Pemo, the support of Augmentum Fintech and Shorooq has only reinforced its business mission. "Having the endorsement of such experienced investors has really been a game-changer for us, and we're very much looking forward to using the funding to help accelerate our growth," Ayham says. "It's both a reflection of the business potential investors are seeing in Pemo, and the opportunities for this sector when it comes to expansion and building on our offering. Our intention is to use the funding to further invest and enhance our product, build our team so that we're continuing to attract the brightest talent and use the skills and knowledge of the investors to help us break into new markets."

While Ayham and his fellow co-founders remain proud and certain of what Pemo has to offer as a standalone entity, they also note that some credit of their startup's quick growth goes towards successful partnerships. "Last year, during the annual Dubai-based tech and startup event GITEX Global, we were proud to announce our strategic partnership with Mastercard," Ayham shares. "This has enabled us to be able to offer enhanced benefits to customers such as better transaction security and wider acceptance of our smart corporate cards. This has also helped to further solidify our position as a market leader in the fintech space. We've been proud to be able to offer even more benefits to our customers via our corporate and virtual cards as a result of this, including cashback rewards, Careem discounts, software discounts (for example, on Google Ads) and travel discounts (with discounts off booking websites and access to travel lounges)."

As the Pemo team now rolls up their sleeves for 2025, it isn't lost on them that being based in a fintech-friendly nation will continue to be a safety net as it looks to scale and expand. "I think being based in the UAE, we have started our business in an ecosystem which is very 'pro startups' and 'pro the entrepreneurial mindset,'" Ayham says. "This has created an environment which has really fostered and nurtured our growth, and working with the very brightest fintech talent in the sector, we have been able to scale from a team of three to over 60 people, from 15 countries so far. Whilst we have a base and an office in Dubai, our talent is based around the world, showing that a fintech company can be truly borderless when it comes to the location of its best talent."

'TREP TALK: Ayham Ghorani, co-founder and CEO of Pemo, shares his tips for entrepreneurs

Securing your customer base in the early days is paramount "Despite many businesses having a great product, it's often surprising how little SME owners know about their real customer and what they want. So, understanding your customer and how big the problem is you're solving for them is key from the start."

Having the right people on board is important "Once you've got your initial wave of customers secured, investors and partners can help unlock access to more of the right type of demographic. When connecting with investors, it's important that you work with those who understand your market, those that can open doors, and those that can help you solve your challenges, connecting you to the right ecosystem."

Surround yourself with the right team "Especially when considering investors and accelerating your customer acquisition growth, get people with expertise in the right fields. For example, when working in tech, you may want to include team members who have expertise in software as a service (SaaS) product building, or taking business to business (B2B) SaaS products to market, or scaling business operations."