Expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains a costly and complex challenge for global businesses, thanks to fragmented regulations and banking systems. Dubai-based fintech Fuse aims to simplify that with a cross-border payments API and has raised $6.6 million in seed funding to make it happen.
Founded in 2023 by George Davis, former co-founder of BVNK, and CTO James Smith, Fuse says it’s the first infrastructure-grade payments platform offering virtual International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) in the region. This is a product Davis says is commonplace in Europe but nearly absent across MENA.
“We’re currently the only provider of virtual IBANs in the Middle East,” Davis told TechCrunch. “It’s a hyper-commoditized product in Europe, but here, it simply didn’t exist.”
Fuse’s core product includes USD virtual accounts for cross-border money movement and dirham-denominated IBANs for local UAE payments. That allows the startup to offer first-mile collections and last-mile payouts for international businesses without requiring them to set up a local entity, handle their own FX, or navigate licensing.
Davis outlines two legacy options for global companies trying to move money in MENA: local payment firms that lack scale, or larger cross-border players like Thunes, which often operate without local licenses and rely on patchy partnerships.
Fuse sits in the middle with a fully licensed, infrastructure-grade platform that simplifies money movement across the Middle East using virtual IBANs and local payout rails. With these options, global businesses can operate in the region without setting up local infrastructure or navigating regulatory red tape.
Most of Fuse’s clients are businesses in the U.S., Europe, and Asia that want to operate in MENA but lack the banking setup or licenses to do so quickly.
Virtual IBANs to do the job
One use case is employers of record (EORs). For instance, a U.S.-based company with employees in the UAE typically needs a local bank account—something hard to obtain without residency or licensing—to pay salaries in dirhams under the correct business name. Fuse solves this by issuing USD-denominated virtual IBANs, allowing businesses to top them up and pay salaries locally in AED (dirhams) directly to named beneficiaries.
Customers can “create unlimited IBANs in their end customers’ names and make local payments,” said CEO George Davis. “Those customers don’t need to be residents or have local entities; they can be anywhere in the world.”
Fuse now serves over 20 clients, including EORs, remittance firms, crypto platforms, marketplaces, and PSPs. Clients include DLocal, RemotePass, and platforms like Deel, Airbnb, and Etsy as they expand into MENA.
The UAE remains Fuse’s anchor market, but the platform has begun enabling direct payouts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan and supports wholesale foreign exchange for Indian and Chinese businesses operating in the UAE that need to repatriate funds through controlled corridors, some of the region’s busiest trade and remittance routes.
There are many startups in various regions with identical offerings but Davis sees more similarities with Visa-backed Currencycloud. Both offer virtual accounts, FX, and cross-border payments, “but while Currencycloud is global, Fuse is built for the Middle East,” he said.
And it’s striking at the right time. Businesses across MENA aren’t just underserved; they’re transacting more than ever, driven by a surge in e-commerce and digital payments. That demand, Davis believes, creates a rare window for regional infrastructure players to win.
“Global cross-border payments tend to be winner-takes-all markets,” he said. “But to win, you now need local specialists. That’s what we’re building.”
Experience from TrueLayer and BVNK
So far, it’s working. Fuse is processing hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter and growing revenue more than 50% month-over-month. In fact, Davis says Fuse made more this quarter than it did all of last year. The company makes money by charging fees on each transaction.
Davis’s interest in solving cross-border payments for the Middle East came from firsthand experience. At TrueLayer, he helped scale the fintech from a data aggregator to a payments and open banking platform serving over 100,000 businesses. At crypto infrastructure startup BVNK, which he co-founded and served as chief product officer, he saw how hard it was for global businesses to expand into the Middle East.
“We were supporting global businesses using stablecoins to move money out of emerging markets,” he said. “We felt the pain of entering MENA—and so did others I was advising. That’s what sparked Fuse.”
He launched Fuse in 2023 with CTO James Smith, a longtime collaborator who led engineering at both TrueLayer and BVNK. The two now lead a 12-person team across engineering, product, and compliance.
Northzone, the European multi-stage VC that has backed the likes of Klarna and Spotify, led the $6.6 million round, with participation from Flourish Ventures, Alter Global, and notable angels, including Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and former Morgan Stanley MENA president George Makhoul.
“The Fuse team is transforming payment infrastructure in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets,” said Sanjot Malhi, partner at Northzone. “Their ability to simplify MENA’s complex cross-border flows is exactly what the region needs.”
Fuse plans to use the fresh capital to grow its team, secure additional regional licenses, and expand its product suite beyond the UAE.
