How Comfi Turns Outstanding Invoices Into Immediate Working Capital for UAE SMEs?

The economics of running a small or medium-sized business in the UAE contain a structural cruelty that balance sheets rarely capture cleanly. A supplier delivers an order. The goods leave the warehouse. The invoice is issued. And then the waiting begins: 30 days, 60 days, sometimes 90 days before the payment arrives, if it arrives on the agreed schedule at all. In the interim, the supplier must still pay for raw materials, cover wages, service its own suppliers, and potentially fund the next order for the same buyer that has not yet paid for the last one. This is not a niche problem. It is the operating condition of the majority of B2B commerce across the region, and it is systematically underserved by traditional financial institutions.

Only 9.5 percent of total lending facilities in the MENA region are allocated to SMEs, a figure that reflects not a lack of creditworthy businesses but a structural bias in how banks assess and serve them. Comfi was founded in 2023 to close this gap, not by lobbying for policy change or waiting for banks to evolve, but by building a technology-first embedded finance platform that turns the outstanding invoice itself into the financial asset it already represents and delivers the capital against it within 24 hours.

Founded From Firsthand Experience, Not From a Pitch Deck

Comfi’s origin story is unusually grounded for a fintech startup. Founder and CEO Sanjar Samiev did not identify the SME cash flow gap as a market opportunity from the outside. He encountered it while building and managing a manufacturing business and overseeing supply chains end to end. The experience of investing heavily in operations upfront, fulfilling orders for large buyers, and then waiting months to receive payment was not hypothetical. It was the financial reality of running a business in the region.

The options available at the time were limited: traditional bank financing required collateral, lengthy credit assessments, and relationships that took months to establish, all for facilities that still did not address the specific timing mismatch between when costs were incurred and when revenue arrived. Samiev founded Comfi alongside co-founders Alisher Akbarov, Amal Abdullaev, and Denis Gavrilin, a team with experience spanning fintech product growth, scaling operations, and engineering, and set out to build the platform he had needed when he was on the other side of the problem.

The founding insight was precise: the cash flow problem for B2B suppliers is not a creditworthiness problem. These businesses have real customers, real contracts, and real invoices representing real revenue that will arrive eventually. The problem is the gap between when costs must be paid and when that revenue lands. A platform that could assess that specific risk quickly, using real transaction data rather than collateral-based credit models, and advance the capital against confirmed invoices within a day rather than requiring weeks of processing, would solve the actual problem rather than offering a general-purpose lending product that does not fit the timing requirements of B2B trade finance. That is what Comfi built.

• 1,000+ SMEs served across the UAE since launch in 2023
• 15,000+ Invoices and deals financed across F&B, electronics, automotive, and more
• 4,000+ Finance leaders and decision-makers working with the platform
• 24 hrs Time from invoice submission to cash in the supplier’s bank account

Three Products, One Problem: The Comfi Capital Suite

Comfi’s product architecture addresses the SME cash flow gap from three distinct angles, each designed for a specific business context. The common thread across all three is the same: the supplier gets paid immediately, the buyer gets the payment flexibility they need to manage their own cash position, and Comfi takes on the risk management and collections work that would otherwise fall to the supplier or go unaddressed entirely.

• B2B Buy Now Pay Later: Comfi’s flagship product. Suppliers submit their tax invoices through the Comfi platform or their own invoicing software. Once the buyer is qualified, Comfi notifies the supplier to proceed with delivery and transfers 100 percent of the invoice value to the supplier’s business bank account within 24 hours. The buyer then repays Comfi across 30, 60, or 90-day terms in two to three installments. Comfi handles all collections. The supplier faces zero collection risk and zero administrative burden from that invoice onwards. Eligible buyers must be UAE-registered B2B businesses with at least six months of operations and AED 100,000 in monthly revenue.
• Invoice Discounting: For suppliers with existing unpaid invoices sitting on their books, Invoice Discounting allows them to convert those outstanding receivables into immediate working capital without waiting for the buyer’s payment cycle to complete. Unlike BNPL, which is applied at the point of a new transaction, Invoice Discounting addresses the receivables backlog that many SMEs carry, unlocking capital that is already earned but not yet received.No collateral is required. The process is designed for speed, with decisions driven by transaction data rather than traditional credit assessment frameworks.
• Dealer Financing: Dealer Financing is Comfi’s industry-specific product for manufacturers and distributors operating through dealer or reseller networks. Rather than extending credit directly to end buyers and waiting for payment, suppliers can offer structured financing through Comfi to their dealer network, enabling dealers to take on larger order volumes without requiring the upfront capital that constrains their purchasing capacity. The product is particularly relevant in the automotive, electronics, and industrial equipment sectors where the value of individual transactions is high and payment cycles are long.

The outcome data across the customer base reflects the structural impact of removing the payment timing mismatch from supplier operations. Comfi reports a 30 percent reduction in Days Sales Outstanding, the average time it takes a business to collect payment after a sale, for businesses using its BNPL product. Revenue growth of 25 percent is attributed to the ability to take on larger order volumes and extend credit to buyers who would previously have been declined because the supplier could not afford to wait for payment.The 95 percent approval rate reflects Comfi’s AI-driven underwriting model, which assesses risk against real transaction data rather than collateral or years-long banking relationships.

• 30% Reduction in Days Sales Outstanding
• 25% Average revenue growth for Comfi customers
• 95% Approval rate on financing applications
• 40% Uplift in average order value when buyers have flexible payment terms

The Voice of the Customer: What UAE Businesses Say About Comfi

The commercial outcomes Comfi produces are most clearly articulated by the businesses using it. Four customer testimonials from across its sector base capture the range of ways that immediate access to capital changes operating decisions.

• “Comfi made it easy for us to improve our working capital at a critical time — seamless, transparent, and exactly as promised.” – Raja Abuljebain, CEO of Essentially Juices Manufacturing LLC

• “When we have cash in hand, we negotiate better with suppliers. That directly improves our margins. With Comfi, we can do that confidently.” – Dharshan DC, International Sales Manager, Furniconcepts
• “Comfi has helped us turn our receivables into growth capital. Their solution removed cash flow bottlenecks and allowed us to scale operations with confidence.” – Anamika Hans, COO & Co-founder of Bevarabia
• “We are no longer offering any new credit terms unless it goes through Comfi. It’s cost effective to maintain credit business, as they take away all the risk and collection headaches.” – Rohit Thomas, CEO of RF Technologies

The RF Technologies testimonial is worth pausing on because it describes a behavioural shift that goes beyond a single product benefit. A business that has decided it will not extend credit to any buyer unless that credit goes through Comfi has effectively outsourced its entire receivables risk management to the platform. That is not a transaction-level product decision. It is a structural change in how the business operates, made possible because Comfi’s underwriting, collections management, and payment extension capabilities are comprehensive enough to replace the in-house function that previously handled these tasks.

For a small or medium-sized business where credit management is typically either underdeveloped or consuming management time that should be directed at growth, this substitution is operationally significant.

US$65 Million to Scale Across MENA

On April 27, 2026, Comfi announced a $65 million Pre-Series A funding round combining equity and debt, the largest raise in the company’s three-year history and the clearest signal yet that institutional capital has concluded that Comfi’s model is the right bet in a market where the problem it is solving is both vast and structurally underserved.

The equity component was led by Iliad Partners, with participation from Yango Ventures and Raw Ventures, both making their first investment in the MENA region through this round. The round also includes a credit facility from Partners for Growth and a mezzanine facility structured by Shorooq, the Dubai-based venture firm that has been backing Comfi since its early stages.

US$65M in equity and debt. Five investors. One mandate: scale SME capital across MENA.

• Iliad Partners (Lead equity investor): First institutional lead for Comfi. GCC-focused technology infrastructure investor.
• Yango Ventures (First MENA investment): Co-investor in the equity round alongside Iliad.
• Raw Ventures (First MENA investment): Equity co-investor reflecting growing international conviction in GCC fintech.
• Partners for Growth (Credit facility provider): Structured lending to support Comfi’s capital deployment capacity.
• Shorooq Partners (Structured the mezzanine facility): Existing Comfi investor deepening its commitment.

The investor rationale across the round converges on three points: the scale of the structural problem, the quality of Comfi’s underwriting technology, and the team’s execution track record in the three years since founding. Christos Mastoras of Iliad Partners described Comfi as tackling one of the most fundamental pain points in the region and noted the combination of AI-driven underwriting and disciplined risk management as the foundation of a scalable platform designed for real-economy impact.

Joe Barron of Shorooq framed the opportunity with precision: SME liquidity constraints across the GCC are not a demand problem but a structural financing problem, and Comfi’s proprietary underwriting engine, operating on real transaction data, creates a more resilient and scalable model than traditional working capital lending. Partners for Growth’s Armineh Baghoomian highlighted the team’s execution and described the business as a great fit for structured credit strategy, reflecting the debt investor’s confidence in Comfi’s credit performance as it has scaled.

The MENA SME Financing Gap and Why Comfi Is Positioned to Close It

The addressable problem Comfi is scaling into is not a niche. SMEs represent the backbone of the GCC economy: they account for more than 90 percent of all businesses and a significant share of private sector employment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the broader region. Yet the financial infrastructure serving them has not kept pace with their role in the economy. The 9.5 percent share of total lending facilities allocated to SMEs in the region reflects a banking system that was built around collateral-based credit models that small and medium businesses structurally cannot satisfy, even when their businesses are profitable, their customers are creditworthy, and their invoices are real.

The result is a persistent capital gap that constrains growth, limits order sizes, prevents investment in inventory and headcount, and in many cases forces otherwise viable businesses into distress when a large buyer delays payment.

Comfi’s AI-driven underwriting model addresses this gap from first principles. Rather than assessing SME credit risk through the lens of physical collateral or years of banking history, it evaluates risk using real transaction data: the buyer’s payment track record, the supplier’s invoice history, the sector dynamics, and the specific characteristics of the transaction being financed. This data-driven approach enables the 95 percent approval rate that traditional banks cannot approach while maintaining the credit discipline that allows the model to scale without deteriorating.

The $65 million raised in this round is directed at three priorities: scaling underwriting and risk capabilities to handle higher transaction volumes and more complex financing structures, expanding the product suite to cover additional SME financing needs, and accelerating geographic expansion across key MENA markets including Saudi Arabia. Comfi is already operating from the 21st floor of Mashreq Bank’s global headquarters in Downtown Dubai, a location that reflects the alignment between its embedded finance model and the institutional banking infrastructure of the region it is serving. The problem it was founded to solve is large, the market is ready, and the capital to pursue it at scale has now arrived.