FlyAkeed Secures USD 25.15M for Corporate Travel Payment System
Saudi corporate travel technology firm FlyAkeed has secured USD 25.15 million in growth funding. This capital will launch a new embedded deferred payment offering, targeting the expanding corporate travel market in Saudi Arabia.
Funding Fuels New Payment Offering
Saudi corporate travel technology firm FlyAkeed has secured USD 25.15 million (SAR 94.3 million) in growth funding. This capital aims to develop a new embedded deferred payment offering for businesses. The investment round combined equity funding with Shariah-compliant financing. Sanabil Investments led this round.
Artal Capital, stc group’s corporate venture capital fund, and Aljazira Capital also participated. Artal Capital independently led the company’s Murabaha sukuk financing component. The primary goal of this funding is to enable a broader segment of enterprises. This will allow them to settle travel invoices with more flexible payment terms.
This initiative directly addresses the expanding corporate travel market within Saudi Arabia. The funds will also support FlyAkeed’s wider growth strategies.
Addressing Market Growth and Inefficiencies
Corporate travel is becoming an increasingly significant operational and financial consideration for businesses across Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is actively expanding its role as a regional business hub. This is driven by numerous giga-projects and large-scale events currently under development.
This growth has propelled Saudi corporate travel spending past USD 10 billion in 2024. Projections indicate this figure could approximately double by 2033. Despite this substantial market expansion, many companies continue to rely on fragmented processes for travel management. These often involve a mix of phone calls, emails, spreadsheets, and manual approval systems.
Such methods lead to inefficiencies. FlyAkeed positions its platform to bridge this gap. It consolidates travel booking, company policy enforcement, approval workflows, and expense management into a single, integrated system.
Platform Capabilities and Strategic Expansion
The introduction of FlyAkeed’s new deferred payment offering further enhances its platform capabilities. It moves beyond merely booking and managing travel. It addresses how enterprises finance their travel expenses. Established in 2015 and headquartered in Riyadh, FlyAkeed provides a corporate travel technology platform.
This allows employees to book flights, hotels, and ground transportation. All bookings are made within predefined company policies. Approvals occur either automatically or are routed efficiently to the appropriate manager. Simultaneously, finance teams maintain oversight of policies, workflows, and spending from a centralised dashboard.
Bassam Almohammadi, FlyAkeed's Founder and CEO, stated the company aims to replace traditional, fragmented methods with an operating system. This system ensures every trip aligns with policy, every riyal spent is visible in real-time, and every approval is processed rapidly.
Industry Implications and Future Outlook
FlyAkeed’s successful funding round demonstrates an evolving trend within corporate travel technology in Saudi Arabia. The sector is showing a clear shift beyond traditional booking and expense management functionalities. It moves towards embedded financial services. For enterprise software companies, the integration of financing components is becoming increasingly important.
Payment terms themselves now form part of the product offering. In FlyAkeed’s specific case, its new offering directly links travel management with critical working capital considerations for its corporate clientele. This deal also showcases the diverse capital structures being deployed to fund the next phase of Saudi Arabia’s enterprise technology sector.
It combines both equity and Shariah-compliant financing. Industry observers will closely monitor how quickly FlyAkeed translates this new financing into widespread adoption of its deferred payment offering among enterprises. The company’s capacity to expand into broader enterprise spending workflows will reveal its long-term market influence.
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