Key Takeaways
- • Stitch, a Saudi-based fintech operating system for financial institutions, raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, marking a16z's first investment in the GCC region and bringing total funding to $35 million.
- • The platform addresses a critical infrastructure gap in banking: despite $1 trillion in digital transformation spending over three years, financial institutions continue operating on fragmented legacy systems that prevent meaningful AI adoption.
- • Stitch's cloud-native stack spans lending, cards, payments, and ledgers, enabling financial institutions to modernize incrementally—module by module—without requiring disruptive system-wide overhauls.
- • The founding team comprises operators from major financial infrastructure players including NPCI, FIS, Barclays, Santander, and Azentio, positioning the company with deep domain expertise in core banking systems.
- • Existing investors Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and SVC also participated in the Series A, signaling continued institutional confidence in Stitch's market opportunity.
Summary
Stitch announced a $25 million Series A funding round led by prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, representing a16z's inaugural investment in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. The financing round brings Stitch's total capital raised to $35 million and includes participation from existing investors Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and SVC.
The company addresses a substantial infrastructure challenge within global financial services. Despite spending exceeding $1 trillion on digital transformation initiatives over the past three years, most financial institutions continue operating on the same fragmented, legacy infrastructure that has dominated the sector for decades. Banks collectively spend $700 billion annually on technology, yet product launches still require years to execute and core system upgrades pose existential operational risks. This infrastructure deficit has become particularly acute as artificial intelligence reshapes competitive dynamics across industries—financial institutions cannot meaningfully implement AI without first establishing clean, reliable systems of record.
Founded by Mohamed Oueida and built by operators with tenure at NPCI, FIS, Barclays, Santander, and Azentio, Stitch developed a cloud-native operating system designed to modernize financial institution infrastructure. The platform provides a unified stack encompassing lending, cards, payments, and ledgers, with a critical architectural advantage: institutions can adopt modules incrementally without executing comprehensive legacy system replacements. By replacing fragmented core infrastructure with a modern, unified system of record, Stitch enables the AI transformation that institutions have pursued but been unable to achieve atop deteriorated infrastructure foundations.
According to Stitch CEO Mohamed Oueida, the investment validates the market need: "Financial institutions globally run on fragmented, legacy infrastructure that should have been left behind 20 years ago. Now every institution wants to adopt AI, but AI on top of broken infrastructure is a dead end. We built Stitch to fix that, and we're proud to have Andreessen Horowitz alongside us."
The company addresses a substantial infrastructure challenge within global financial services. Despite spending exceeding $1 trillion on digital transformation initiatives over the past three years, most financial institutions continue operating on the same fragmented, legacy infrastructure that has dominated the sector for decades. Banks collectively spend $700 billion annually on technology, yet product launches still require years to execute and core system upgrades pose existential operational risks. This infrastructure deficit has become particularly acute as artificial intelligence reshapes competitive dynamics across industries—financial institutions cannot meaningfully implement AI without first establishing clean, reliable systems of record.
Founded by Mohamed Oueida and built by operators with tenure at NPCI, FIS, Barclays, Santander, and Azentio, Stitch developed a cloud-native operating system designed to modernize financial institution infrastructure. The platform provides a unified stack encompassing lending, cards, payments, and ledgers, with a critical architectural advantage: institutions can adopt modules incrementally without executing comprehensive legacy system replacements. By replacing fragmented core infrastructure with a modern, unified system of record, Stitch enables the AI transformation that institutions have pursued but been unable to achieve atop deteriorated infrastructure foundations.
According to Stitch CEO Mohamed Oueida, the investment validates the market need: "Financial institutions globally run on fragmented, legacy infrastructure that should have been left behind 20 years ago. Now every institution wants to adopt AI, but AI on top of broken infrastructure is a dead end. We built Stitch to fix that, and we're proud to have Andreessen Horowitz alongside us."
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