The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2019–2026
Lean's open-banking bet pays off: SAMA's first license, $100M raised, 1M+ accounts
Founded in 2019 on Saudi open banking, Lean ran in SAMA's sandbox, raised $100M, and in March 2026 got the kingdom's first open-banking license.
Lean Technologies
What the business is
Financial infrastructure that lets businesses and fintechs securely access bank data and initiate payments — the plumbing of Saudi open banking.
Starting capital：Over $100 million raised: a $33 million Series A in 2022 and a $67.5 million Series B in 2024 led by General Catalyst
How it started
In November 2022 SAMA issued its Open Banking Framework and told banks and fintechs to be ready to launch services by Q1 2023. Lean had been founded in 2019 by Hisham Al-Falih, Ashu Gupta, and Aditya Sarkar to bet on exactly that: regulated, open access to financial data becoming the foundation of Saudi fintech. It entered SAMA's sandbox early and began connecting bank accounts for lenders and marketplaces.
What happened
Inside the sandbox Lean connected over 1 million bank accounts and analyzed more than 1 billion transactions, with clients including Tabby, Tamara, Tawuniya, Abdul Latif Jameel, and Salla. In November 2024 it raised a $67.5 million Series B led by General Catalyst — with Bain Capital Ventures and Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office participating — bringing total funding past $100 million to scale pay-by-bank and open-banking products across MENA.
How it ended up
In March 2026 SAMA began licensing open banking and granted Lean the kingdom's first Major Payment Institution license, moving it from sandbox testing to a regulated business. Lean says the license lets it scale to thousands of merchants, tens of thousands of SMEs, and millions of users, and it was exploring deals and a possible IPO as of late 2025.
Background
Lean Technologies is a bet that Saudi Arabia would open its banks by regulation and that whoever built the data-sharing rails first would own the market. Founded in 2019 by Hisham Al-Falih, Ashu Gupta, and Aditya Sarkar, the company built infrastructure that lets businesses access bank data and initiate payments. When SAMA issued its Open Banking Framework in November 2022, requiring banks and fintechs to be ready to launch by Q1 2023, Lean was already inside the regulator's sandbox as one of its first participants.
The sandbox years became the company's moat: Lean connected over 1 million bank accounts and analyzed more than 1 billion transactions while serving clients like Tabby, Tamara, Tawuniya, Abdul Latif Jameel, and Salla. In November 2024 it raised a $67.5 million Series B led by General Catalyst, with Bain Capital Ventures and Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office, pushing total funding past $100 million to scale its pay-by-bank and open-banking products across the region.
The regulatory bet paid off in March 2026, when SAMA began licensing open banking and granted Lean the kingdom's first Major Payment Institution license. The license moved Lean from testing to a regulated business and, per the company, positions it to serve thousands of merchants, tens of thousands of SMEs, and millions of users.
What has to be true
- SAMA's framework created the demand before any product existed; Lean's bet was that banks and fintechs would need a neutral data layer to satisfy it.
- The sandbox gave Lean years of live testing and client partnerships before licensing formalized — early data that later became evidence for its license.
- BNPL and lending clients such as Tabby and Tamara needed cash-flow data to underwrite customers without credit histories, a use case open banking solved immediately.
What can be applied
When a regulator opens a market, the early mover that builds compliant rails inside the sandbox converts that regulation into a license — and a head start nobody can copy overnight.
Aftermath
As of March 2026, Lean has converted its sandbox position into the first open-banking license in Saudi Arabia and says it can now scale to thousands of merchants, tens of thousands of SMEs, and millions of end users. The company had been exploring acquisitions and a potential IPO as of late 2025, with CEO Hisham Al-Falih positioning Lean beyond open banking into broader financial infrastructure across MENA.
Sources
- SAMA Issues the Open Banking Framework
- Lean closes Series B at $67.5 million, bringing total funding to $100 million
- Saudi Arabia issues first open banking license to Lean Technologies
- SAMA Commences Licensing of Fintech Companies to Provide Open Banking Services
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