Dubai – Sharikat Mubasher: Dubai-based fintech Fuse raised $6.6 million to build the financial infrastructure powering cross-border payments across the Middle East and North Africa.

The seed round was led by Northzone, with participation from Flourish Ventures, Alter Global, and angel investors, including Flutterwave founder GB Agboola, according to a recent press release.

Expanding into MENA has long been a costly, complex task for global businesses. Fuse aims to fix that with a unified API and the region’s first virtual IBAN technology, enabling fast, compliant money movement without the need for local bank accounts or licenses. The platform already supports payments across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

Launched in 2023, Fuse is led by George Davis, the CEO, and James Smith, the CTO, fintech veterans behind TrueLayer and BVNK. Their solution is already powering global names like Deel, Airbnb, Etsy, and dLocal as they expand into MENA’s fast-growing markets.

Davis said: “Before Fuse, infrastructure like virtual IBANs simply didn’t exist in the region. This year is all about scale—serving the demand in MENA and expanding into Europe and Asia.”

With a growing team and strong early momentum, Fuse is positioning itself as the go-to infrastructure layer for payments between the Gulf and the rest of the world.