ClearGrid, armed with a fresh $10M, is developing AI to improve debt collection in MENA
Insertion of debts in emerging markets often feels outdated and can be expensive – harmful borrowing trust. As consumer loans and supervisors insist on fairer practices, legacy collection -outfits struggle to maintain the pace.
Cleargrid The aim is to help modernize the debt collection and recovery with AI. The Startup, which comes from Stealth with $ 10 million in financing ($ 3.5 million pre-seed and $ 6.5 million, seeds), helps banks, fintechs and lenders to recover more debts without resorting to the intimidation of the customer.
For a startup set up just in May 2023, the support is considerable. Co-founder and CEO Mohammed Al Zaben it called a crucial advantage for a “very ambitious company with a big mission in a very large market.”
Build ai-driven debt collection
Al Zaben stumbled in the collection room after the sale of his previous startup, Munch: Op, Careem in 2022. While he takes free time after the exit, ZABEN says that he thinks about one of Munch: On’s biggest challenges: collecting payments from business customers.
That already led Zaben in a rabbit hole to the management of claims and unpaid invoices. After further reflection, ZABEN already realized that consumer collections caused an even greater problem.
“When we spoke with collectors, it was clear that the industry was stuck in the past – some agencies still used pen and paper, and the most advanced familiar trusted on the basis of CRMs,” Al Zaben told WAN. “Debt decrease was a company driven by people where collectors were dependent on shocking tactics and intimidation. Borrowers had a terrible experience and regulators in Saudi and the VAE began to give priority to the protection of consumers.”
At the same time, consumer loans flourished. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) unicorns such as Tabby and Tamara used billions in sales, and unsecured credit totals shot up in the middle -east.
Al Zaben and his co-founders, Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud And Mohammed KhaliliFelt a chance. Although they have no experience with the collection market, they launched Cleargrid, creating software and AI to streamline recovery and collaborate with the existing suppliers in space.
“At a time when the lending is booming, sharpening the regulations and reforming the industries, we see this as an opportunity to help recover lenders while building trust with borrowers.” Said the CEO.
“This is just the first step in building the infrastructure for the future of debt solution,” Bader Al Saud added.
Automated collection of components
Cleargrid is among lenders and borrowers, with the help of AI to automate the collection process. Integrates lenders via the Cleargrid or API platform, so that borrowing accounts are sent for processing.
Cleargrid says that the AI models score things such as repayment probability, helping to predict customer behavior and personalize outreach through communication channels.
According to Al Zaben, 95% of the activities of Cleargrid are fully automated, including AI -speech agents who handle hundreds of thousands of phone calls every day. For borrowers that prefer human interaction, the platform facilitates direct conversations and feeds insights into the many models of the startup.
The Platform of Cleargrid categorizes borrowers based on their assets and willingness to pay, then structures reimbursements in smaller, manageable chunks, and bump into reimbursement without coercion. The company claims that its platform can lower the collection costs by 50%.
“We build specially built tools and find ways to make lenders better in what they do and at the same time create a chance for consumers to get out of debts,” said Al Zaben.
Since the launch in 2024, Cleargrid says that it has managed hundreds of millions of debt portfolios and signed ten of the most important fintechs and banks in the VAE. A large bank unnamed increased the recovery percentages by 30% and lower the collection costs in half, Cleargrid claims, while a leading BNPL provider doubled the recovery by automating the debt resolution at an early stage.
Throughout the board, ZABEN says that Cleargrid dissolves twice as quickly as traditional collection agencies, whereby between 38% to 50% a resolution rates are reached, while borrowers interact 60% more with the platform than with these agencies.
Cleargrid earns money by charging a percentage reimbursement for reclaimed amounts. The income of the startup grow by 30% month by month in the VAE, where Cleargrid is already profitable, and the company wants to enter Saudi Arabia this year, per Al Zaben.
Al Zaben said that with the collected financing ClearGrid the income and accounts managed in 2024 manages to be managed in 2024 (it has more than 130,000 credit shed accounts every month.)
ClearGrid’s Investors include Middle East and North Africa-Focused VCS Beco Capital, Nuwa Capital, and Raed Ventures and Prominent Angel Investors Such as Anu Hararan (ex-YC, Avra Founder), Amjad Garder (Replit Custa), Jeo, Jeo, Jeo, Jeo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jeoo, Jein, Jeoo), Jeo. Co-founder), and Kenneth Lin (ex-CEO at credit karma).
