Comfi Raises $65M to Transform B2B Payments in MENA with AI-Powered Platform

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 27-04-2026

4 min

Gulf SMEs face ‘invoices issued, months of waiting’ and punishing cash flow gaps.

UAE fintech Comfi raised $65m to scale embedded finance across MENA.

Its B2B model pays suppliers within 24 hours, buyers get 90 days.

AI-driven underwriting aims to fix a ‘structural financing problem’ in SME liquidity.

Comfi has processed 15,000 invoices, but risk control will prove decisive.

Cash flow. It sounds dry, almost boring. But speak to any SME founder in the Gulf and you’ll hear the same story: invoices issued, months of waiting, and a constant juggling act just to keep things moving. I’ve sat with founders who say they feel they are running a marathon while carrying bricks on their backs. It’s not dramatic, it’s just reality.

That’s the problem UAE-based fintech Comfi is trying to fix. The company has secured $65 million in a Pre-Series A round made up of both equity and debt, as it looks to scale its embedded finance platform across the MENA region.

The equity round was led by Iliad Partners, with Yango Ventures and Raw Ventures joining as new investors in the region. On the debt side, Partners for Growth provided a credit facility, while Shorooq structured a mezzanine facility with participation from a family office. It’s a layered structure, and that in itself says something about how seriously investors are taking this model.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in the UAE, Comfi was set up by Sanjar Samiev, Alisher Akbarov, Amal Abdullaev, and Denis Gavrilin. The team brings experience in fintech product growth, operations, and engineering, shaped by time spent inside financial services and close exposure to SME cash flow headaches.

Across the region, B2B payment cycles often stretch beyond 60 or even 90 days. For smaller businesses, that delay can be brutal. When your margin is tight, waiting two or three months to get paid is more than a nuisance, it can be the difference between expanding and simply surviving.

Comfi’s answer is a B2B Buy Now, Pay Later model tailored for supply chains. In simple terms, suppliers can offer their business customers up to 90 days to pay, while receiving their own payment within 24 hours. The financing is embedded directly into the transaction, rather than handled as a separate, traditional loan process. Less paperwork, less back and forth, less of a faff, frankly.

Chief executive and co-founder Sanjar Samiev has said the idea came from firsthand experience of how disruptive long payment cycles can be. He explained that when businesses wait over 60 days to be paid, they cannot invest in stock, hire properly, or pursue new opportunities. Instead of building, they are just staying afloat. By combining embedded finance with AI-driven risk assessment and underwriting, he said, Comfi aims to unlock capital instantly without the friction of conventional lending.

From the investor side, Christos Mastoras, Founder and Managing Partner at Iliad Partners, noted that access to working capital remains one of the most fundamental pain points for SMEs in the GCC. He pointed to Comfi’s use of AI-driven underwriting and disciplined risk management as reasons for backing the company, adding that the platform is designed to create real-economy impact.

Armineh Baghoomian, Managing Director and Head of EMEA at Partners for Growth, described Comfi’s model as a strong fit for the firm’s structured credit strategy and focus on high-growth, category-defining businesses in the GCC. Meanwhile, Joe Barron, Credit Principal at Shorooq, highlighted what he called a structural financing problem in SME liquidity across the region. He emphasised that Comfi’s proprietary underwriting engine, built on real transaction data, offers a more scalable and resilient alternative to traditional working capital lending.

So far, Comfi has processed more than 15,000 invoices, works with over 4,000 finance leaders, and serves upwards of 1,000 clients. For a company founded just three years ago, that traction is definately not trivial.

The new funding will go towards strengthening its underwriting and risk capabilities, expanding the product suite, and scaling further across key MENA markets. And believe it or not, this isn’t just about faster payments. It’s about trust in supply chains. If suppliers know they’ll be paid within 24 hours, they can negotiate better, stock better, and plan better. That shifts the psychology of doing business.

On the flip side, embedded finance is becoming a crowded space, and execution will be everything. I reckon the real test for Comfi will be how well it manages risk as it grows. Working capital can be a powerful engine, but only if credit discipline remains spot on.

Still, as we often say at Arageek, empowering startups in MENA is not only about headline funding rounds. It’s about building infrastructure that quietly strengthens thousands of smaller companies. If platforms like Comfi succeed, the impact will not make daily noise, but it will be felt in warehouses, offices, and factory floors across the region.

And that, in my view, is where the real story lies.

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