Saudi Arabia-based financial technology startup, Stitch, has raised $25 million in Series A funding in a milestone deal led by global venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). This marks the American investment firm’s first-ever backing of a company in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

The round also attracted participation from existing investors including Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and SVC, bringing Stitch’s total funding to $35 million after a $10 million seed round closed a year ago.

Founded in 2022 by Mohamed Oueida, Stitch is positioning itself as a next-generation infrastructure company helping banks and financial institutions replace outdated systems with a modern, cloud-based operating platform.

What to Know About This Investment

The funding round is significant not only because of the amount raised, but because of the calibre of the lead investor. Andreessen Horowitz is one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture capital firms, known for early bets on transformative technology companies across software, crypto, fintech, and artificial intelligence.

Its decision to lead Stitch’s Series A round signals rising global confidence in startups emerging from Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region. For Stitch, it also provides more than capital, it offers credibility, strategic support, and access to one of the most powerful global investor networks.

The company described the investment as a major step forward in its ambition to become a global technology partner for financial institutions.

“We built Stitch to fix that, and we’re proud to have Andreessen Horowitz alongside us,” said Stitch founder and CEO Mohamed Oueida.

What Does Stitch Really Do?

Stitch develops what it describes as a cloud-native operating system for modern financial institutions. In simpler terms, the company builds the software backbone that banks, lenders, payment companies, and financial service providers need to run efficiently.

Its platform covers critical financial operations including:

• Lending systems
• Card issuing and management
• Payment infrastructure
• Core ledgers and financial records

Many banks around the world still depend on ageing legacy systems built decades ago. These systems are often fragmented, slow to upgrade, and expensive to maintain. Stitch aims to solve that by offering a single integrated platform that institutions can adopt gradually rather than replacing everything at once.

According to the company, financial institutions can modernise “module by module, without ripping out existing systems overnight.”

This approach is especially attractive in banking, where replacing core infrastructure in one move can be risky, disruptive, and extremely expensive.

Market Capacity

Stitch is entering a massive global market. Financial institutions spend enormous amounts every year on technology, yet many still struggle to innovate quickly.

The company noted that despite more than $1 trillion being spent globally on digital transformation in the past three years, most institutions still run on old and disconnected systems. It added that banks spend around $700 billion annually on technology, yet launching a new product can still take years.

This highlights a major market opportunity for companies that can modernise banking infrastructure faster and more efficiently.
Stitch also believes the rise of artificial intelligence has made this problem more urgent.

“Now every institution wants to adopt AI, but AI on top of broken infrastructure is a dead end,” Oueida said.

That statement captures Stitch’s central market thesis, banks cannot fully benefit from AI unless their underlying systems are modern, clean, and integrated.

Traction and Milestones

Although founded only in 2022, Stitch says it has achieved strong early momentum across multiple markets.

In the last six months alone, the company reported that more than $5 billion has been transacted on its platform, a sign of significant operational scale for a relatively young startup.

It also disclosed rapid commercial growth, with customer numbers increasing 10x in 2025, and revenue growing 20x in the same period. Stitch currently operates across the GCC, Africa, and Southeast Asia, with a growing customer base that includes notable businesses such as:

• Raya Financing, the lending arm of Hyundai and Peugeot
• LuLu Exchange
• Noqodi
• Foodics

These customer wins suggest the company is already gaining trust among established financial and commercial institutions.

How Stitch Plans to Use the Money

The fresh $25 million capital injection will be channelled into several growth priorities.
First, Stitch plans to accelerate product development, likely expanding capabilities across lending, payments, compliance, and AI-ready infrastructure.

Second, it intends to deepen its presence in the GCC while broadening expansion across the wider MENA region, where banks and financial institutions are actively pursuing digital transformation.

Third, the company wants to strengthen its global go-to-market operations, showcasing ambitions beyond regional markets.
Stitch said its long-term goal is to serve financial institutions worldwide.

Why This Matters

This investment reflects a broader shift in global venture capital attention toward the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Gulf states are investing heavily in technology, innovation, and financial services modernization.

It also underscores the growing demand for “picks and shovels” fintech companies, businesses that do not necessarily serve consumers directly, but power the infrastructure behind banks and payment systems.

For the region, a16z’s first GCC investment could encourage other global funds to look more seriously at Middle Eastern startups.

For banks, Stitch’s rise points to increasing pressure to abandon outdated systems and adopt modern platforms capable of supporting AI, faster product launches, and lower operating costs.

Alex Rampell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said the opportunity is clear, noting that:

“Financial institutions are sitting on decades of infrastructure debt, and that debt is now the single biggest obstacle to AI adoption. What Stitch is building, a modern, unified system of record, is what makes everything else possible.”

With strong investor backing, fast-growing traction, and a market hungry for modernisation, Stitch is now positioning itself as one of the most closely watched fintech infrastructure startups to emerge from Saudi Arabia.

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