Ibrahim Aldlaigan, CEO of Stream.
Stream, the Saudi-born billing and payments firm, has raised $4M in seed funding to scale its mission to remove friction from merchant payments in the MENA region; starting with Saudi Arabia.
The round was led by early-stage investment firm Outliers VC, BYLD Ventures and prominent angel investors such as Abdullah Elyas, Co-founder of Careem.
Speaking on the round, Ibrahim Aldlagan, Founder & CEO of Stream, said, “Most of the world’s innovation in payments has focused on how people spend. We’re focused on how businesses get paid. This round helps us build the tools and infrastructure that make that as easy in MENA as it is anywhere else.”
The firm will use the funds to fuel its product development in engineering, compliance, payment capabilities and strengthen its internal systems and user experience.
Stream gives business structure and control on how and when payments happen – one-time, recurring or in parts. It’s about making payments predictable, flexible, and connected to the real flow of services.
Founded in 2024 by Ibrahim Aldlaigan, Stream manages and automates the entire payment lifecycle for businesses from issuing branded app-free invoices to scheduling payments with flexible options, collection through local rails, cash flow visibility, reconciliation and record keeping.
Stream started serving firms specialising first in early childhood education, and has since scaled into school networks, SaaS, and other verticals, now powering millions in payments for thousands of customers across dozens of merchants. redefines how businesses in MENA bill and collect payments from customers.
According to the Saudi Central Bank Report on Payments Usage Study 2023, the total value of payment transactions in Saudi Arabia reached approximately USD 4.8 trillion in 2023, with roughly 70% of retail transactions now happening digitally. Yet only around 7% of consumer transactions are reported to be recurring payments.
While the majority of payments have moved online, recurring payments such as tuition fees, rent, and subscriptions still run through manual or semi-manual processes. This is the extensive gap that Stream is focused on solving.
Sarah AlSaleh, General Partner at Outliers VC, stated, “Stream is built on deep local insight and a clear understanding of how businesses actually operate. Ibrahim brings the rare combination of investor perspective and relentless product execution, which is already reflected in how fast the platform is evolving. Stream is laying the foundation for the next generation of payment infrastructure in the region. We’re proud to back him and the Stream team, and partner on the journey to streamline payments”.
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