UAE startup Metric, founded by Pakistanis, announces 7-figure seed round

AI fintech Metric announced a seven figure seed round to grow their offering across the Gulf region and Asia. The company told Business Recorder it is not revealing the exact amount at this stage.

Founded in 2022 by Pakistani couple Meenah Tariq and Omar Parvez, along with the company’s CTO Dr Habiba, Metric said in a statement released Thursday that the seed round had participation from Sanabil 500 Global, Hub71, i2i Ventures, Plus VC, Epic Angels, and Accelerate Prosperity. Notable angels from across the GCC also participated.

At the same time, the Abu-Dhabi headquartered company focused on serving businesses across emerging markets said it has launched the “world’s first Chief Financial AI” called Max, which acts as a ‘micro-advisor’ for business owners.

Startup founders: why this Pakistani couple moved to Dubai after setting up Metric

CEO Meenah Tariq explained to Business Recorder that Max is not a bot but rather a “business co-pilot AI agent”.

“Max, built on top of $4bn worth of proprietary transactional data, leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence to analyze business financial data and provide actionable insights that traditional accounting software simply can’t match,” said Dr. Habiba, Metric’s CTO in the statement.

“By understanding spending patterns and identifying growth opportunities, Max empowers business owners to make data-driven decisions and achieve sustainable financial success,” she added.

Metric’s web app and Chief Financial AI are available in English and Arabic, with in-app educational content in both languages. Metric said its flagship Android app has been used by 130,000 plus businesses across 190 countries.

Peshawar-born Tariq was quoted in the statement as saying that “with over 500 businesses signed up already to use Max, and with the region’s top investors backing us - we are building from the GCC, for the world.”

Scaling up

Metric connects its users to financing opportunities and financial services like business debit cards, through their marketplace of financial products and services.

Tariq told Business Recorder that with the funds from the latest seed round, Metric wants to “accelerate access to the Chief Financial AI for business owners, and also scale up the pilots we have been doing for funding access for business owners, financial products such as debit cards, and more.”

“So mainly two things: going deeper into the MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) market with our AI agent, and then adding more value to our offerings through our fintech marketplace for business owners.”

“We built Metric to de-mystify accounting and finance for business owners, to increase access to funding and growth - and our CF-AI does exactly that,” she added.

When Business Recorder last spoke to the founders in November 2023, they said Metric had raised $900,000 in pre-seed funding in an oversubscribed round in March the year prior.

At the time, Tariq had said not only was Metric seeing “extremely fast growth and traction”, the company also saw the UAE as an entry point into the wider MENA region.

“We’re not just stopping at the UAE. The UAE is the first market that we’re going deeper into and betting our money on, and then we’re going to expand to other markets.”