Visa and Alaan Partner on Expense Management in Middle East
Visa and Alaan have partnered to provide digital expense management solutions to businesses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.
The companies’ five-year strategic alliance brings together the VisaNet global payment processing network and Alaan’s artificial intelligence (AI) spend management system, the companies said in a Wednesday (March 27) press release.
“Together, we are not just offering a spend management solution; we are transforming how businesses in the Middle East manage their finances,” Parthi Duraisamy, CEO at Alaan, said in the release.
Alaan’s platform is used by more than 500 mid-market and enterprise organizations to control their business spend, according to the release. Launched in 2022 and based in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Alaan plans to expand operations in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in 2024.
The new partnership with Visa will enable Alaan to enhance the platform’s capabilities with real-time tracking, automated reconciliations and streamlined expense management, the release said.
Alaan will also leverage Visa’s global network to provide seamless international payment capabilities to the businesses using its platform, per the release.
The two companies will also cooperate on joint marketing initiatives to accelerate the adoption of spend management solutions in the Middle East, as well as supporting the economic growth and digital transformation of the region, according to the release.
“At Visa, we are committed to fostering strategic partnerships that enhance and secure the region’s payments ecosystem and deliver innovative corporate solutions that support businesses in their digital transformation,” Saeeda Jaffar, senior vice president and group country manager for GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) at Visa, said in the release.
Alaan announced its launch of a business cash-back card in August 2022, saying it was the first such card to be launched in the UAE. The company also touted its ability to help businesses do away with expense reports, manual bookkeeping tasks and a need for petty cash.
“Consumers have long had access to such cards in UAE, but that has not been the case for SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] and corporates,” Duraisamy said at the time.
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