Wa'ed launched in the Saudi market in just 4 months

Wa'ed Ventures is the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco and a key player in executing Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 — the national strategy to diversify the economy beyond oil. The fund backs companies tackling the Kingdom's core challenges: housing, food security, climate, and SME financing — the segment that drives non-oil GDP but has long faced the deepest capital gap.

For Wa'ed, launching a proprietary lending platform was a strategic move, not an operational upgrade. The speed of loan disbursement directly determines how fast Aramco-backed capital reaches the startups and SMEs driving Vision 2030. That set a high bar: end-to-end automation, full SAMA compliance, readiness for Sharia-compliant products, and an architecture built to scale across the Kingdom.

Wa'ed supports companies that aim to address major challenges like housing, climate, food security, and SME financing, helping accelerate innovation through investment and guidance. They needed a loan management platform to streamline operations and enhance scalability.

HES FinTech initiated the project with an in-depth business analysis to fully understand Wa’ed’s requirements and market challenges. This analysis guided the development process, where the team designed a customized solution tailored to meet Wa’ed’s goals. The focus was on creating an end-to-end automated lending system designed to streamline operations, enhance scalability, and reduce decision-making time. Close collaboration with Wa’ed ensured the platform aligned with their business model and regulatory needs, paving the way for a smooth implementation.

HES LoanBox allows borrowers to register and apply for a loan online, access their application/loan data, and receive money into a bank account within 5 minutes. The solution processes borrowers’ loan applications from the initial step until the full reimbursement. HES FinTech's solution enabled the client to expand their operations and provide loans to a growing customer base. As a result, Wa'ed has emerged as a prominent commercial lending company in Saudi Arabia, renowned for its competitive interest rates and swift application processing.

The 4-month time-to-market covered the full path from business analysis to a production-ready environment, allowing Wa'ed to enter the market without the multi-quarter implementation cycle typical for regulated lending products in the region.

The 50% reduction in decision-making time came from replacing manual review steps with automated routing and scoring. Applications now move through the workflow without queue delays, and approved funds can reach the borrower in as little as 5 minutes.

The 2X increase in applications reflects growing demand from Saudi SMEs for digital lending. Wa'ed handled the doubled volume without a proportional increase in headcount, since the same automation that halved decision times also absorbed the additional load.

Combined, the 4-month launch, 50% faster decisions, and 2X application growth describe a consistent outcome: a regulated lending operation built, deployed, and scaled within a single fiscal cycle.