Saudi Fintech Wadaie Scores Seed Round to Boost Shariah-Compliant Investments

Saudi-based fintech startup Wadaie has clinched its seed round, with backing from VentureSouq alongside Graphene Ventures, RZM Investments, Arab National Bank and Alinma Bank. The Riyadh-born firm, founded in 2022 by Abdullah AlAndas, Abdulrahman AlHawas and Rayan AlTowaijri, is carving its niche by offering Shariah-compliant time deposit investments via a single digital gateway.

The idea is simple but effective: instead of juggling multiple bank accounts, both individual and corporate users can access high-yield deposit products in one slick platform. To me, that’s spot on for a market like Saudi Arabia where efficiency and compliance often go hand-in-hand. Wadaie says the fresh capital will be funnelled into tighter regulatory compliance, stronger cybersecurity, and new features that appeal to both personal investors and large enterprises. A mobile app is also on the cards for 2025, which should simplify access further.

As of February this year, Wadaie had onboarded just over 29,000 users—an impressive leap for such a young company. No surprise then, it’s been named among the Middle East’s Top 50 fintechs for 2025. That said, keeping up this pace will mean balancing user growth with the not-so-glamorous side of fintech—compliance checks, system integration, and a shedload of paperwork that’s frankly a bit of a faff.

The team’s mission lines up neatly with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reforms, specifically the Financial Sector Development Programme which aims to make savings and financial products more inclusive, digital and trustworthy. By linking customers directly to banks’ deposit products, Wadaie also helps those banks tap new liquidity without ballooning internal costs. In other words, it’s a win-win: banks cut overheads, users unlock more options, and the ecosystem nudges forward.

Having been around Arageek for long enough, I’ve seen plenty of platforms chase “disruption,” but not all of them manage to find real-world traction. I reckon Wadaie’s dual pitch—to both customers and financial institutions—could make it hard to ignore. Still, fintech is a crowded field, and competition is only heating up.

With additional firepower and heavyweight investors on its side, Wadaie now faces the tricky stage of scaling without tripping over its own growth. If the team pulls it off, this could be one of those rare cases where ambition and execution line up perfectly. And while nothing in fintech is ever guaranteed, you’d be chuffed to bits if you were among the early backers right now.

One small note though… I noticed their rollout strategy puts the mobile app all the way into Q2 2025. That feels a tad slow in today’s mobile-first market. But then again, better to launch complete than scramble with half-baked tools. Definately a story worth watching.

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