Andreessen Horowitz, better known as a16z, has led a $25 million Series A round in Stitch, a Saudi fintech that already runs operations across the GCC, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The deal brings Stitch’s total funding to $35 million and gives the company capital to build more products, grow in the region, and widen its global sales push.
This deal stands out for a second reason. It is a16z’s first investment in the GCC and its first investment in Saudi Arabia, according to both a16z and the Saudi Press Agency. That gives the round more weight than a normal growth check. It shows that a top US venture firm now sees Saudi Arabia as a serious place to find financial infrastructure companies with room to scale.
a16z enters the Gulf with a clear target
Stitch says more than $5 billion moved through its platform in the last six months. It also says customer numbers grew 10x in 2025, while revenue grew 20x in the same period. Those numbers help explain why a16z chose Stitch for its first Gulf deal. Investors want fintech companies that already solve a hard problem and show strong usage before they scale harder.
The round also included existing backers Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and SVC. That matters because follow-on support from earlier investors often indicates that a company has met targets between rounds. In Stitch’s case, it raised a $10 million seed round a year earlier, then returned with a much larger Series A after building traction.
Stitch sells the system behind digital finance
Stitch does not run a consumer app. It builds the plumbing that banks, fintechs, and non-financial companies use to launch and manage financial products. Its platform covers cards, lending, payments, wallets, deposits, and ledgers through one API-first system. In simple terms, Stitch wants customers to stop stitching together many vendors for each product line and instead run key financial services from one stack.
That pitch fits a real need in finance. Many banks still rely on old core systems that slow product launches and make upgrades painful. a16z framed this clearly in its investment note. The firm said old infrastructure has become one of the biggest blocks to AI adoption in finance because intelligent systems need clean data and usable APIs. A bank cannot move fast with AI if its core records sit in messy, fragmented systems.
This is one reason fintech infrastructure has held investor interest even in a tighter funding market. Consumer fintech can swing with sentiment and spending. Core software tends to look stronger when it saves time, reduces integration work, and supports compliance and operations at scale. Stitch sits in that part of the stack.
Africa gives this story extra weight
Stitch may be based in Saudi Arabia, but its footprint already reaches well beyond the Gulf. Wamda reports that the company operates across the GCC, Africa, including Egypt and Kenya, and Southeast Asia. It also names customers such as Raya Financing, LuLu Exchange, Noqodi, and Foodics. That regional spread helps Stitch tell a bigger story than a local Saudi startup story. It is building from Saudi Arabia while serving markets that still need better financial rails.
Africa matters here because the continent remains one of the most active fintech markets outside the US, Europe, and India. Payments, lending, wallets, and banking tools still attract demand because many markets have gaps in credit access, cross-border movement, and legacy bank software. Stitch’s move into Egypt and Kenya places it in two markets where digital finance demand stays high and institutions keep looking for better back-end systems. The company is not just chasing user growth. It is selling picks and shovels to firms that need stronger financial operations.
The US firms have become more selective over the past two years. They now back companies with more revenue, stronger margins, and products that solve painful business problems. Stitch fits that pattern better than a broad consumer fintech story. It gives a16z exposure to Saudi Arabia’s rising tech base and to African fintech demand through one infrastructure company.
Saudi Arabia gives Stitch room to grow
Saudi Arabia has worked hard to turn itself into a stronger startup market, especially in fintech and enterprise software. a16z said the Middle East offers a rare greenfield opening for modern financial infrastructure, helped by a fast-growing financial services sector and Saudi plans to add hundreds of new financial institutions over the next five years. New institutions need modern systems from day one. That gives infrastructure startups a clear opening.
More capital has flowed into Saudi startups, and global firms now pay closer attention to what comes out of Riyadh. Stitch can build close to a market that wants more financial products, more digital services, and more local technology suppliers. At the same time, it can sell into African markets where financial institutions still need flexible systems for lending, payments, and cards. That mix gives Stitch a wider path than many young fintechs get.
The next step
Stitch says it will use the new funding to speed up product development, deepen its presence across the GCC and broader MENA region, and expand global go-to-market operations. That sounds measured, and it should. Fintech infrastructure wins through execution, not noise. Customers care about uptime, integrations, compliance, and faster product launches. Investors care about revenue quality and long contracts.
a16z’s backing does not guarantee success, but it gives Stitch capital, credibility, and a louder voice as it grows in Saudi Arabia and across African markets. Right now, that is enough to make this one of the more credible fintech funding stories to watch.
