21 October, 2025
Merak Capital is thrilled to announce a $1.2 million investment in ByNow, a Saudi B2B FinTech pioneering buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) for businesses. This investment will accelerate product development, deepen ecosystem integrations, and support strategic hiring so ByNow can continue to extend credit rails to the Kingdom’s 1.6M+ SMEs and accelerate digitization efforts aligned with Vision 2030’s goal of modernizing the financial infrastructure.
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Riyadh, ByNow is led by co-founders Rami Suliman and Ahmed Banafa. The team is building modern B2B credit rails, anchored by BNPL at the point of purchase, and an account receivable/payable (AR/AP) automation that integrates with existing systems, to simplify how businesses buy, sell, and get paid.
ByNow’s flagship B2B BNPL is embedded directly in sellers’ workflows; built for marketplaces, manufacturers, and wholesalers, so they can offer terms at checkout, allowing ByNow to tap these existing customer bases with minimal friction. As this supplier network grows, we believe the resulting visibility into transaction flows and buyer behavior (with appropriate permissions) sharpens underwriting and creates a defensible data advantage.
Around ByNow’s core product, its AR/AP automation delivers risk management, billing organization, and expedited collections. It will be deployed internally to streamline ByNow’s own operations, while also being offered externally as a standalone solution that provides a new value proposition within B2B payments and unlocks a further revenue stream.
Saudi Arabia’s SME backbone is large and growing: ~1.6 million SMEs; 67% quarterly jump in commercial registrations. Meeting Vision 2030’s goal to lift SME GDP contribution to 35% requires deeper access to working capital and digitized payments, reflected in MSME credit growth of 17% year-over-year and reaching SAR
307.4B. ByNow embeds credit at the seller’s point of payment and layers complementary solutions (AR/AP automation and integrations), positioning it to lead as these rails become standard for B2B trade.
ByNow’s distribution strategy centers on workflow integrations with the systems SMEs already use. By plugging into procurement and accounting platforms, including Lawazem (a Saudi B2B operational-procurement marketplace) and Qoyod (a ZATCA-compliant cloud accounting suite), ByNow brings BNPL and AR/AP into daily operations, reducing adoption friction and strengthening its data flywheel for underwriting and collections.
ByNow is building the credit and payments rails that Saudi B2B commerce now demands. We’re proud to back Rami Suliman, Ahmed Banafa, and the ByNow team with an $1.2M investment as they unlock capital for the Kingdom’s 1.6M+ SMEs.
