Egyptian fintech unicorn MNT-Halan has announced a strategic partnership between its Gulf arm, Halan UAE, and Saudi-based open banking platform Lean Technologies. The collaboration aims to merge MNT-Halan’s AI-driven lending engine with Lean’s open banking infrastructure to significantly expand credit accessibility for consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the GCC. The agreement was officially signed at the Money20/20 Middle East conference in Riyadh.
A Strategic Alliance for Financial Inclusion
The partnership directly addresses a significant gap in the GCC’s financial landscape. Despite high digital adoption, an estimated 3.7 million people in the UAE remain underbanked, and SMEs, which constitute over 90% of the nation’s businesses, continue to face challenges in securing formal credit. By integrating Lean’s secure, regulator-approved access to bank data, Halan UAE can build more comprehensive financial profiles for individuals and businesses that have limited or no formal credit history, fostering greater financial inclusion. This initiative aligns with the UAE’s Open Finance strategy and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, both of which aim to enhance SME competitiveness and promote digital finance.
Leveraging AI and Open Banking
At the core of this collaboration is the integration of MNT-Halan’s proprietary AI-powered credit scoring engine, Neuron, with Lean’s open banking platform. The Neuron engine analyzes a customer’s income, expenses, account balances, and repayment history to generate a detailed financial assessment. This data is enriched with information on user engagement with in-app tools and identity verification, enabling faster and more precise credit decisions at scale. The synergy between these technologies is set to establish a new regional benchmark for lending. “By integrating Lean’s infrastructure with our AI-driven Neuron engine, we are building one of the region’s most advanced lending platforms for financial access,” said Mounir Nakhla, Founder and CEO of MNT-Halan.
Rapid Growth and Market Expansion
Since launching in December 2024, Halan UAE has experienced remarkable growth, amassing a customer base of over 220,000 in less than a year. This rapid adoption has been fueled by strong demand for its innovative financial products, including Earned Wage Access, Car Loans, and Salary Lending. The company also has plans to introduce several new financing solutions later this year. The signing of the partnership with Lean at a major regional event in Riyadh underscores the company’s commitment to deepening its footprint across the GCC.
About MNT-Halan
MNT-Halan is Egypt’s leading fintech ecosystem and the largest and fastest-growing lender to the unbanked and underbanked. Founded in 2018, the company is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt. It provides a range of services including digital payments, loans for consumers and micro-enterprises, and e-commerce solutions. MNT-Halan became Egypt’s first private non-bank company to be valued at over $1 billion.
About Lean Technologies
Founded in Saudi Arabia, Lean Technologies is the leading Open Banking platform in the Middle East. The company builds developer-friendly infrastructure that enables fintechs to seamlessly connect to their users’ bank accounts to retrieve data and initiate payments. Lean is regulated by central banks across the region, including in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain.
Source: Waya
