The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2015-2026
FlyAkeed's corporate-travel OS bet: $25.15M from Sanabil at LEAP 2026
Saudi B2B traveltech replaces calls and spreadsheets with a booking, approval and spend system; 150+ corporate clients and a PIF-backed growth round.
FlyAkeed
What the business is
FlyAkeed is a Riyadh-based corporate travel-management platform where employees book flights, hotels and ground transport inside company policy and finance teams manage approvals, policies and spend from one dashboard, with embedded deferred payments for large enterprises.
Starting capital：SAR 94.3M ($25.15M) growth funding announced at LEAP 2026: equity led by Sanabil Investments with Artal Capital, stc's tali ventures and Aljazira Capital, plus Murabaha sukuk financing led by Artal Capital
How it started
FlyAkeed was founded in Riyadh in 2015 by Bassam Almohammadi, who saw that corporate travel in Saudi Arabia still ran on phone calls, email threads and spreadsheets, leaving finance teams with little visibility and spend leaking into out-of-policy bookings. The company built a single platform where employees book flights, hotels and ground transportation within company policy, approvals route automatically, and finance manages policies and expenditure from one dashboard.
What happened
FlyAkeed grew to more than 150 corporate customers across Saudi Arabia, including PIF, Maaden, Golf Saudi and the National Housing Company, and earned follow-on backing from Sanabil Investments. The market context is favorable: Saudi business-travel spending exceeded $10 billion in 2024 and is projected to roughly double by 2033, driven by giga-projects, global events and the Kingdom's rise as a regional headquarters hub.
How it ended up
At LEAP 2026 in Riyadh, FlyAkeed announced SAR 94.3 million ($25.15 million) in growth funding combining an equity investment led by Sanabil Investments with participation from Artal Capital, stc Group's corporate venture fund tali ventures and Aljazira Capital, plus Artal-led Murabaha sukuk financing. The funds primarily support an embedded deferred-payment offering that lets large enterprises settle travel invoices on flexible terms, positioning FlyAkeed where traveltech meets embedded finance.
Background
FlyAkeed is a Saudi corporate travel-management platform founded in Riyadh in 2015 by Bassam Almohammadi. It gives employees a single place to book flights, hotels and ground transportation inside company policy while automating approvals and giving finance teams real-time visibility into travel spend, replacing phone calls, WhatsApp groups and spreadsheets.
The company grew to more than 150 corporate clients in Saudi Arabia, including PIF, Maaden, Golf Saudi and the National Housing Company, in a market where business travel spending exceeded $10 billion in 2024 and is projected to roughly double by 2033.
In September 2026 FlyAkeed announced SAR 94.3 million ($25.15 million) in growth funding at LEAP 2026: an equity round led by Sanabil Investments, the PIF-owned investment company, with Artal Capital, stc Group's corporate venture fund tali ventures and Aljazira Capital, alongside Murabaha sukuk financing led by Artal Capital.
The strategic move is embedded finance: FlyAkeed is adding deferred payment terms so large enterprises can settle travel invoices flexibly. The bet is that software alone was not enough to displace manual processes, but software plus financing turns FlyAkeed into the enterprise infrastructure layer for how companies in the Gulf book, approve and pay for travel.
What has to be true
- Policy-controlled booking and automated approvals directly attack the out-of-policy spend that manual travel processes leak, giving finance teams a measurable reason to switch.
- The client list, from PIF and Maaden to Golf Saudi and the National Housing Company, shows the platform can win the Kingdom's largest enterprises.
- Sanabil, a PIF-owned investor, led the equity round and had already backed the company, signaling sovereign-fund conviction in domestic SaaS.
- Embedded deferred payments add a financing layer that large buyers want, expanding the market from travel management to corporate cash-flow management.
What can be applied
Digitizing a market that runs on manual coordination is a useful wedge, but adding financing to the software is what makes large enterprises actually switch operating systems.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-05 FlyAkeed is rolling out its embedded deferred-payment offering for large enterprises using the $25.15M raised at LEAP 2026, with Artal Capital providing Murabaha sukuk financing alongside Sanabil-led equity. The company serves more than 150 Saudi corporate clients and is targeting a corporate travel market projected to roughly double to $20 billion by 2033. Open risks include competition from global travel-management incumbents entering Saudi Arabia and the credit risk of financing large enterprise travel invoices.
Sources
- Saudi FlyAkeed secures $25.15 million to scale enterprise travel platform
- Saudi: FlyAkeed raises $25.15mln in equity and business travel financing for large enterprises
- FlyAkeed Secures $25.15M to Scale Corporate Travel Platform
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