Halan UAE, a subsidiary of Egypt’s fintech unicorn MNT-Halan, has partnered with Lean Technologies to increase credit availability to small enterprises and individuals throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Despite digitisation, nearly 3.7 million individuals in the UAE remain unbanked or underbanked.
SMEs, representing over 90% of businesses, face limited credit options. This partnership combines MNT-Halan’s AI-powered lending platform, Neuron, with Lean’s open banking infrastructure to tackle these barriers head-on.
Omar Ramadan, CEO of Halan GCC, said, “Crossing 220,000 customers in under a year proves demand for simpler, faster, and more inclusive financial solutions”.
Building advanced lending platforms with AI and open banking
The partnership combines Lean’s open banking with MNT-Halan’s AI-driven credit engine, Neurone, to provide secure, regulator-approved access to consumer bank data.
RelatedPosts
This engine evaluates income, expenses, balances, repayment history, and engagement patterns, even for individuals with minimal or no credit history, to evaluate creditworthiness.
Mounir Nakhla, Founder and CEO of MNT-Halan, explained, “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.”
This approach sets a new standard for combining open banking and AI to deliver fast, accurate credit decisions at scale across the region.
Addressing financial Inclusion and SME growth
Since its launch in December 2024, Halan UAE has grown to serve over 220,000 customers with products like Earned Wage Access, Car Loans, and Salary Lending.
The partnership fuels UAE and Saudi Arabia’s fintech goals, including digital finance expansion and SME competitiveness under the UAE’s Open Finance Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030.
Hisham Al-Falih, Co-Founder and CEO of Lean Technologies, noted, “Open banking is a cornerstone of both the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s fintech ambitions. Through this partnership with Halan, we are advancing financial inclusion at scale.” Demand for innovative financing solutions drives this rapid growth, creating access for those left out of traditional financial systems.