Nayla lands $18M in equity and debt to expand micro-business lending

RIYADH — Nayla, an AI lending platform for Saudi micro-businesses, has landed $18M in a pre-Series A that blends equity and debt. Idrisi Ventures led the equity, BLOMINVEST provided a debt facility, and Suhail Ventures participated. Wamda reports the company, founded in 2024 by Shaqran Alyahya and Khalid Naili and built inside Sanabil Studio, raised a $4M seed in 2024.

The split between equity and debt was not reported, so the headline stands as announced and the record notes the blend. Heat on this desk is computed on equity; when the split surfaces, the reading will move.

Why it matters: this is the first Sanabil Studio venture to close an institutional round, which is the first external validation of PIF’s venture-studio model. It also shows Saudi fintech rounds increasingly stapling debt facilities to equity to fund a loan book, which is the right structure for a lender and a reason to read every Saudi fintech headline number twice.

Who wins: Sanabil, which now has a studio graduate with outside money; and BLOMINVEST, which gets a Saudi micro-lending book to finance at LEAP-week prices.

Source: Wamda