mamun Raises $3M Seed for Gulf-Asia Trade Finance

Oman-based trade finance platform mamun has raised a US$3 million seed round led by Phaze Ventures through its Oman Fund, with participation from Jasoor Ventures.

Phaze Ventures invests through the Oman Fund, which is dedicated to homegrown, AI-enabled Omani businesses. Jasoor Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm backing technology founders across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

mamun is a Sharia-compliant platform that finances the gap between shipping goods and getting paid. An exporter in Muscat typically waits 60 to 90 days for payment, and banks rarely bridge that period because they tend to rely on a long financial track record that many small exporters cannot provide.

The platform assesses the company behind a trade as well as the shipment itself, looking at the contract, the buyer, the trade documents and the trading history between the two sides. Investors on the platform then provide the financing.

Its Omani entity is licensed and regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Oman, and the company also has entities in Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong SAR. It says roughly 40% of its trade finance settlements already clear through Hong Kong-based financial institutions and businesses.

The US$3 million will go toward scaling its AI-native origination and underwriting, to grow the volume of trade it can originate, assess and finance along the Greater Bay Area, Oman and UAE corridor.

The gap it targets is large. The Asian Development Bank puts the global trade finance shortfall at US$2.5 trillion, and 41% of SME trade finance applications are turned down.

Cross-border deals are harder to finance than domestic ones. A single transaction spans two regulators, two banking systems and two legal regimes, which is why most of the region’s financing platforms have stayed domestic.

The corridor is also growing. Oman’s non-oil exports ran about 10% higher year-on-year through the first seven months of 2026, and re-exports rose 13.6%, with the UAE its largest non-oil trading partner. New trading pairs have no shared history for a lender to underwrite against, which is the problem mamun’s model is built to address.

”Our thesis is backing the homegrown companies that turn Oman’s diversification agenda into regional infrastructure,” said Abdullah Al Shaksy, Co-Founder and CEO of Phaze Ventures. “mamun is exactly that, structured across the corridor, and built by a team that has executed quietly and precisely. It is a natural commitment from the Oman Fund.”

mamun was founded by Saleh Al Tamami, Mohammed Al Tamami and Ahmed Al-Issaei. It was named a Rising Star on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Middle East 2025, ranking 26th.