Vrtx, a Riyadh startup that builds embedded finance infrastructure, has raised $3.6m in a pre-seed round. The company announced the funding on 19 October 2026.
The round was backed by SC Ventures by Standard Chartered, Sadu Capital, BYLD, Suhail Ventures, F6 Ventures, TAZ Investment and Palm Ventures. No lead investor was named, and the company did not disclose a valuation.
Alongside the funding, Vrtx said it has received In-Principle Approval from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) for an Electronic Money Institution licence. In-principle approval is a step towards a full licence rather than the licence itself.
“Building fintech products today is hard.”Mishal Bin Slimah, Co-founder and CEO, Vrtx
What Vrtx does
Vrtx sells the building blocks that let a business offer financial services inside its own product without building the underlying systems. Its platform covers digital wallets, payouts, card issuing, transfers and transaction processing, and it provides a test environment, guided workflows and an operations layer for companies once they go live.
SC Ventures' announcement, published on Zawya, said the platform is delivered through modular APIs and also handles customer identity checks and onboarding, and is aimed at sectors such as fintech, logistics and HR.
"Building fintech products today is hard," said co-founder and chief executive Mishal Bin Slimah. He said companies with a clear idea and real demand can spend years putting together core systems, work that Vrtx says its platform removes.
Who is behind it
Vrtx was founded in 2025 by Mishal Bin Slimah and Omar Shaaban, who previously worked together at Tweeq, an early Saudi digital financial platform that was later acquired by Tabby.
SC Ventures is the innovation, fintech investment and venture-building arm of Standard Chartered. Its investment is subject to regulatory approval, according to the Zawya release. Gabriel Heredia, its country lead for Saudi Arabia, said the deal reflects the firm's conviction in the growth of embedded finance in the kingdom and in the team's ability to scale, and added that its involvement is about more than capital.
What the money is for
Vrtx did not give a breakdown of how it will spend the money. On its blog, the company said the funding will help it build embedded finance in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East and North Africa region, and SC Ventures described the round as a foundation for the company's next stage of growth.
The company has not said how many people it employs or which customers are using the platform.
Regulation comes first
For Vrtx, the in-principle approval from SAMA is the step towards offering its services within the kingdom's regulatory framework. Until a full Electronic Money Institution licence is granted, the company is working towards that goal rather than operating as a licensed e-money issuer.
Youcef Oudjidane, co-founder and managing partner of BYLD, said embedded finance could become an important layer of economic infrastructure, and stressed that innovation and regulation need to develop together. Bin Slimah said the partnership with SC Ventures brings more than capital and called the investment an important milestone as Vrtx builds out its infrastructure.
Company website: vrtx.sa