The Rise of Alaan in Digital Corporate Finance

For decades, businesses have struggled with outdated expense management systems—manual reimbursements, lost receipts, and time-consuming approvals that slow down financial operations. Traditional corporate finance relied on fragmented processes, leaving finance teams buried in paperwork and inefficiencies.

But the landscape is changing fast. Digital transformation is no longer a choice—it’s a necessity. One study found that virtual card transactions globally are expected to increase from $1.9 trillion in 2021 to $6.8 trillion in 2026. This surge reflects a growing demand for smarter, AI-driven financial solutions that offer businesses real-time control, automation, and cost efficiency.

In the UAE, where businesses are rapidly embracing digital payments, Alaan has emerged as the leading force in corporate finance innovation. What started as a solution to eliminate manual expense tracking has evolved into a powerful AI-driven spend management platform—trusted by 1,000+ companies across industries.

In this post, we’ll explore how Alaan is revolutionising business payments, from its inception to its cutting-edge innovations, and why it’s the go-to solution for UAE businesses looking to streamline financial operations.

Why Traditional Expense Management Fails

In UAE’s digital-first economy, inefficiencies are not sustainable. Businesses need a smarter way to manage corporate spending—one that eliminates manual work, ensures full visibility, and enhances financial control.

Here are the core reasons why traditional expense management methods no longer work:

1. Manual Reimbursements Are a Nightmare

Employees paying out-of-pocket for business expenses and waiting weeks for reimbursements is a broken system. It disrupts personal cash flow, creates unnecessary admin work, and often leads to frustration when receipts go missing or claims are delayed.

2. Lack of Real-Time Visibility

Traditional corporate cards and petty cash systems offer little to no real-time visibility. Finance teams are left scrambling at the end of the month to reconcile transactions, often dealing with surprise expenses that were never tracked properly.

3. Fraud and Unauthorised Spending Go Unchecked

With outdated corporate card systems, businesses struggle to control spending. Employees can use shared cards without oversight, and fraudulent transactions often slip through due to poor tracking and approval processes.

4. Slow and Error-Prone Expense Approvals

Approvals for business expenses often require multiple levels of sign-offs, leading to unnecessary delays. When done manually, the process is prone to errors, making it difficult to enforce spending policies consistently.

5. Inefficient Accounting and Compliance Management

VAT compliance, financial audits, and tax filings become a major challenge when businesses rely on manual bookkeeping. Without automated expense categorisation, companies waste hours preparing reports and tracking expenses for tax purposes.

6. Hidden Costs and Unclaimed Savings

Traditional banking solutions often come with hidden fees, high foreign transaction costs, and little to no cashback rewards. Without smart financial tools, businesses lose opportunities to optimise their spending and save money.

How Alaan is Leading Digital Corporate Finance in the UAE

Every great innovation begins with a problem. For Alaan, that problem was the outdated, fragmented, and inefficient way businesses in the UAE managed expenses. Corporate finance was stuck in a cycle of slow approvals, manual reconciliations, lost receipts, and opaque spending. Companies struggled to gain visibility over their financial operations, and finance teams drowned in administrative work instead of focusing on strategic decision-making.

Alaan set out to change that—not just by digitising corporate payments but by completely redefining how businesses manage their finances.

From Frustration to Innovation: The Need for Change

Alaan’s journey started when co-founder Parthi Duraisamy, a former McKinsey consultant, experienced firsthand the inefficiencies of traditional expense management.

As a consultant, Parthi traveled frequently for work, accumulating expenses for flights, hotels, transportation, and meals. The process of tracking expenses was tedious—collecting paper receipts, manually submitting reports, and waiting weeks for approvals and reimbursements. Even in a large, well-structured company like McKinsey, corporate expense management was far from seamless.

This raised a critical question: How were mid-sized and growing businesses handling expenses if a global company struggled with business spending?

The answer? They weren’t.

Most businesses in the UAE relied on a broken system of:

• Petty cash funds that required constant replenishment and had zero oversight.
• Personal reimbursements that left employees out of pocket for weeks.
• Traditional corporate cards that lacked spending controls and real-time visibility.
• Manual accounting entries that drained time and increased errors.
• VAT compliance challenges due to missing receipts and unorganised expense tracking.

Bridging the Gap: The Birth of Alaan

Seeing the massive gap in the market, Parthi and co-founder Karun Kurien realised that businesses in the UAE lacked a smart, automated, and AI-driven corporate finance platform. Unlike companies in the US or Europe, businesses in the region had no seamless way to manage, track, and optimise spending.

And so, in 2021, Alaan was founded—not as just another corporate card provider, but as a fully integrated digital finance platform that automates business spending from start to finish.

Alaan’s mission was simple: Eliminate manual expense reports, reimbursement delays, and inefficiencies in corporate finance.

What Makes Alaan the #1 Digital Corporate Finance Platform in the UAE?

Alaan isn’t just digitising payments—it’s revolutionising the way businesses manage money. Through AI-driven automation and deep financial intelligence, Alaan provides businesses with a level of control, transparency, and efficiency that traditional banks and legacy systems cannot match.

Here’s why Alaan is leading the digital corporate finance transformation in the UAE:

1. AI-Powered Expense Automation

Manual expense reports are a thing of the past. Alaan automates the entire expense management process—from transaction tracking to receipt matching and reconciliation.

• Real-time spending insights: Businesses can monitor transactions instantly, preventing overspending.
• AI-driven categorisation: Expenses are automatically sorted and mapped to the right cost centres.
• Auto-reconciliation with accounting tools: Alaan seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, and other ERP platforms.
• Elimination of reimbursements: Employees no longer have to pay out of pocket and wait weeks to get their money back.

2. Smart Corporate Cards with Full Spending Control

Alaan payments allow businesses to issue both virtual and physical corporate cards instantly, enabling finance teams to manage spending with precision.

• Set spending limits per employee, team, or vendor to prevent unauthorised transactions.
• Restrict purchases to specific categories (e.g., marketing, SaaS subscriptions, fuel).
• Lock and freeze cards in seconds for fraud prevention and tighter security.
• Issue unlimited virtual cards instantly for different business expenses.

With multi-currency support for AED, SAR, and USD, businesses operating in multiple regions can seamlessly manage international transactions.

3. Seamless VAT Compliance & Tax Reporting

One of the biggest financial pain points for UAE businesses is VAT compliance. Keeping track of receipts, categorising expenses correctly, and ensuring accurate reporting can be overwhelming.

Alaan solves this problem by automating VAT categorisation and tax reporting.

• Every transaction is automatically VAT-tagged and categorised.
• Real-time receipt matching eliminates lost paperwork.
• Finance teams can generate instant tax reports for audits.

This ensures businesses stay 100 percent compliant with UAE tax laws while reducing the burden on finance teams.

4. Instant, Contactless Business Payments

Alaan is the first spend management platform in the Middle East to offer Apple Pay and Google Pay integration for corporate cards.

Employees can now make secure, contactless payments on the go—eliminating the need to carry physical cards and making business transactions faster and more convenient.

5. Powerful AI-Driven Spend Analytics

Alaan isn’t just about tracking expenses—it’s about helping businesses make smarter financial decisions.

• Deep insights into spending trends and cost-saving opportunities.
• AI-powered reports that highlight inefficiencies in vendor payments.
• Forecasting tools to optimise future budgets and resource allocation.

With real-time spend analytics, businesses can move beyond expense tracking and focus on financial optimisation and strategic growth.

6. Recognised as the #1 Expense Management Platform

Alaan’s impact on digital corporate finance hasn’t gone unnoticed.

In 2024, G2 ranked Alaan as the #1 Expense Management Platform in the Middle East & Africa region.

Alaan has also received multiple high-performer distinctions across categories like Spend Management, Payment Card Issuance, and Travel & Expense Management.

These awards reflect the trust and satisfaction of thousands of businesses that have adopted Alaan to streamline their financial operations.

The Future of Digital Corporate Finance in the UAE with Alaan

Alaan is not just an expense management tool—it is a financial transformation platform that is redefining business operations in the UAE and beyond.

From AI-powered automation to seamless compliance and intelligent spend controls, Alaan is leading the shift towards smarter, more efficient corporate finance.

With ongoing advancements in AI, machine learning, and real-time reconciliation, Alaan is set to expand its capabilities even further. Businesses can expect:

• AI-powered invoice payments & vendor management.
• Deeper ERP and banking integrations.
• Expanded global payment capabilities for seamless cross-border transactions.

Join the Future of Business Spending

Thousands of businesses across the UAE have already made the switch to Alaan.

If your company still relies on outdated financial processes, now is the time to upgrade.

Take control of your business expenses today. Book a free demo with Alaan and experience the future of corporate spending.