Hot on the heels of it receiving a Saudi Central Bank license, Saudi fintech savings platform Hakbah has raised US$2 million in a pre-Series A funding round to fuel its growth in the Kingdom.
Aditum Investment Management and Global Ventures participated in the funding round. Proceeds will be channeled toward improving Hakbah’s user journey and enhance its savings engine algorithm.
Founded in 2018, Hakbah is a social savings platform allowing users to save and access funds via social savings. In 2022, it achieved an organic growth of over 20 times, saving 18,000 users over US$35 million. it currently has a customer base of 120,000.
“While savings groups are the most popular form of alternative borrowing for unbanked groups in emerging economies, various pain points still define the user experience. These include inefficiencies in identifying and managing savings groups, to a lack of transparency, flexibility and consistency in payments. Hakbah is stepping in to digitize the US$6 billion ROSCA [rotating savings and credit association] market in Saudi Arabia, and the wider region,” commented Noor Sweid, the managing partner of Global Ventures.
According to Hakbah, 70% of Saudis do not have emergency savings, with household savings rate averaging 1.6%.
“Hakbah will play a key role in supporting [Saudi Vision 2030] by widening its savings offering and partnerships for employees, gig-workers, students, housewives and many others,” said Hakbah Founder Naif AbuSaida.