OCTA Raises $3.5M Seed to Expand AI Accounting Tools Into the US and Gulf
Middle East Venture Partners led the round, which brings the UAE fintech's total funding to US$5.6 million.
Karim El-Sayed Karim El-Sayed covers company news, policy and regulation across the UAE and wider MENA for Anecdoted, with a focus on how new rules and licences reshape how startups operate. karim@anecdoted.com
OCTA, a UAE-based fintech platform, has raised US$3.5 million in seed funding to widen its AI-powered financial software for accounting firms. The round takes the company's total funding to US$5.6 million.
Middle East Venture Partners led. Aramco's venture capital arm Wa'ed Ventures participated, along with Plug and Play, A-typical Ventures, Sukna Ventures and Sadu Capital.
Where the money goes
OCTA will spend the capital on its AI and engineering capabilities, on automating more financial workflows, and on international growth. The United States sits at the centre of that expansion plan.
OCTA Flow, and the review step
The company launched OCTA Flow, a set of AI agents built for recurring accounting tasks. It handles reconciliations, bookkeeping and month-end closing. Accountants review and approve the output before it reaches a client.
That boundary is deliberate. Co-founder and CEO Jon Santillan said the accountant remains the protagonist, holding the client relationships, understanding the context around the numbers, and carrying accountability for the finished work. What AI changes, in his framing, is how much of the work has to be produced by hand. Give firms more operating leverage, he said, and the firms become more powerful.
More than 520 accounting firms signed up for access to OCTA Flow within six weeks of launch, according to OCTA. The company also said its platform processed 172,000 transactions in August 2026 and freed more than US$75,000 in billable capacity for accounting firms.
The investor case
Ali Al Almajthoob, a partner at MEVP, said AI workflows and agentic systems are rewriting the economics of financial work, and that firms which do not adapt will fall behind on cost and speed. He said OCTA Flow lets professional financial services firms compete in the AI-driven era instead of being squeezed by it, and that OCTA sits with those firms rather than around them. MEVP believes the team can build a category leader with global reach, he said.
From payables to the monthly close
OCTA was founded in 2024 and builds AI-based financial software for accounting firms and the SMBs they serve. The technology is meant to take on repetitive tasks while leaving review and judgment with accountants. Its first focus was accounts receivable and accounts payable, including invoice processing, collections, approvals and payments. OCTA Flow extends the product across other parts of the monthly accounting cycle.
Operations began in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. OCTA has since expanded into the United States.
Co-founder and COO Nupur Mittal described the shift in what the software is for. Firms traditionally used software to get work done; AI allows the software to produce the work itself. Someone still has to review it, make the judgment calls, and stand behind the result.
Why the buyer matters
Accounting firms are an awkward customer for automation vendors. They sell judgment, and their output carries liability, so a tool that removes the reviewer removes the thing clients pay for. OCTA's pitch is that the agents take the volume and the firm keeps the signature, which is a narrower claim than replacing the firm and a harder one to defend if rivals match the output quality. The Gulf market gave the company its first users; the US, with far more firms to sell to, is where that positioning gets tested, and the new capital is what funds the attempt.
Separately, KSA-based Aumet raised US$12 million in Series A funding to scale AI-powered health procurement across the GCC.
