• UAE-based B2B agriculture-focused fintech Maalexi has secured a shariah-compliant credit facility of up to $20 million from Amwal Capital Partners, starting with an initial $5 million tranche.
• Founded in 2021 by Azam Pasha and Rohit Majhi, Maalexi helps small food and agribusinesses directly access cross-border trade through its dynamic risk management platform.
• Funding will enable Maalexi to scale operations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, support thousands of SMEs, and advance its mission of strengthening regional food security.
• Earlier this year, Maalexi secured a $3 million debt finance facility from Citi.

Press release:

Maalexi, a next-generation B2B food and agri platform, has today announced that it has secured a shariah-compliant credit facility of up to $20 million from Amwal Capital Partners (ACP), a leading independent firm specialising in alternative investments across the MENA region. 

The strategic agreement will start with a US$ 5 million tranche of capital that will enable Maalexi to scale its operations and advance its mission to strengthen food security across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The facility will also be used by Maalexi to serve thousands of SMEs waiting to partner with the platform and build a solid foundation for future growth.

Maalexi enables verified SMEs to participate directly in cross-border food and agri-trade by reducing risk, optimising capital, and enhancing transaction security. The platform leverages proprietary technologies to manage credit, inventory, compliance, and logistics with unmatched intelligence. 

The facility is a fully tech-enabled securitisation structure, designed to track daily risk positions in real time and execute swift, small-ticket transactions through Maalexi’s patented blockchain-secured automation. It is collateralised against Maalexi’s inventory and receivables across UAE warehouses. Future expansion is expected into origin-market procurement via partnerships with Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and cooperatives.

The agreement is designed to accommodate future funding at a significantly higher scale as Maalexi builds trade volumes and deepens its data and algorithm-driven risk mitigation capabilities. These proprietary systems reduce critical operational risks, including quality, quantity, weight, price, counterparty, and payment risk — enabling greater efficiency and trust in complex food and agri-trade flows.

Dr Azam Pasha, CEO of Maalexi, said:

“This facility is more than capital—it is a catalyst to enhance our capabilities and help us build resilient and intelligent  food supply chains that are driven by speed, transparency, and trust. Partnering with Amwal Capital empowers us to scale our reach to tens of thousands of SMEs across the region while accelerating the deployment of our core technology stack — AI for risk intelligence and decision-making, IoT for real-time trackability and traceability, and blockchain for secured documents and immutable transaction records. Combined with the capital support of partners like Amwal Capital, these innovations are redefining how food is digitally procured, stored, and distributed—reinforcing food security across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the wider GCC.”

With the UAE importing nearly US$ 24 billion of food annually—80% of which is re-exported to meet regional food security needs—SMEs remain an underutilised and underrecognised part of this food supply chain. Maalexi is addressing this gap by enabling SMEs to become a key part of the backbone of food security in the region. 

In addition to funding expansion, this structure will allow Maalexi to allocate more of its equity capital toward further developing its advanced technology stack—including embedded technologies, proprietary datasets, and an upcoming tokenisation layer that will enable real-time transactions and payments, executed within seconds.

Sharif Eid, Head of Private Credit at Amwal Capital Partners, added:

“Maalexi’s proprietary technology stack, deep market linkages, and robust operational controls set a new benchmark for de-risking and scaling agri-trade. This is precisely the type of impactful business we are committed to supporting.” 

Amwal Capital is not only providing financing to Maalexi but also becoming its key strategic partner, supporting the company in scaling and deepening its impact across all SME segments in the food and agri-trade value chain.

Fadi Arbid, CIO at Amwal Capital Partners, further added:

“We are pleased to provide disruptive and non-traditional asset-backed capital to our partner Maalexi, which in turn is disrupting a traditional industry poised for transformation through financial innovation in the strategically vital area of food security.”