Trade finance infrastructure · UAE
Asharfi.ai is building AI-powered financial infrastructure that lets UAE businesses unlock working capital from approved invoices — in days, not months. We're opening early access to businesses that want to be first.
سيولة فورية لمنشآتك — من فواتيرك المعتمدة
Pre-launch · early access open Built for UAE SMEs Designed as regulated infrastructure
90 days of waiting → liquidity within days of invoice approval
The problem
Typical wait between invoice approval and payment for businesses selling on credit terms in the UAE
A business delivers goods, the buyer approves the invoice — and then nothing happens for months. That gap between work completed and cash received is one of the largest hidden costs in domestic trade.
Every dirham locked in receivables is a dirham that can't buy inventory, pay suppliers, or fund payroll. Growth stalls while the balance sheet looks healthy on paper.
Bulk-purchase discounts, new contracts, and seasonal demand don't wait 90 days. Businesses routinely pass on profitable opportunities purely because cash is stuck in transit.
The faster a business grows, the more it sells on credit — and the deeper the cash-flow hole becomes. For many SMEs, payment terms, not demand, decide how big they can get.
The financing gap
SMEs sit at the centre of UAE trade, yet the financing built for them was designed for a different era. Each existing path leaves the core problem — slow cash against approved invoices — unsolved.
Term loans and overdrafts demand collateral, long credit histories, and weeks of processing. They price the company, not the invoice — so a strong receivable from a strong buyer counts for little.
Slow to access, collateral-heavy, disconnected from the trade itself
Where factoring exists, it is paperwork-driven, opaque on pricing, and often requires businesses to hand over entire receivables books rather than choosing which invoices to fund.
Manual, all-or-nothing, and built on decade-old workflows
Most businesses default to absorbing the delay — stretching their own suppliers, delaying hires, and turning down orders. The cost is invisible on any invoice but very real in lost growth.
The most common choice, and the most expensive one
The gap isn't a lack of credit. It's the absence of modern infrastructure that can read a trade, price its risk, and move money at the speed business actually happens.
That's what we're buildingHow it works
Conceptual flow · the platform is in active development and details will be finalised with pilot partners
Your buyer has accepted the goods and approved the invoice. You choose which receivables to unlock — invoice by invoice.
Our intelligence layer evaluates the invoice, the buyer, and the trading relationship — pricing the receivable, not just the borrower.
A significant share of the invoice value is paid out through regulated digital payment rails — targeted within days of approval.
Your customer pays on their normal schedule. The advance settles, the remainder is released, and your relationship is untouched.
The platform
Asharfi.ai is not a single product — it's the financial infrastructure beneath domestic trade. Invoice-backed working capital is where we start; the platform is designed to carry much more.
Convert approved receivables into liquidity on demand. Select the invoices you want to fund, see transparent pricing, and keep control of your customer relationships.
A learning system that understands buyers, sellers, sectors, and payment behaviour across the trade network — turning scattered signals into underwriting-grade insight.
Money movement built on regulated digital payment rails from day one — designed for the standards banks, auditors, and regulators expect of financial infrastructure.
Over time, Asharfi.ai's capital and intelligence will plug directly into the software where trade already happens — ERPs, marketplaces, and supply-chain platforms.
The intelligence layer
Who the buyer is, how they've paid before, how this trade compares to the sector's rhythm. Our models are built to read that story and price it fairly.
Duplicate invoices, inflated values, and fabricated trades follow patterns. Detection is designed into the funding flow itself, protecting businesses and capital partners alike.
Each funded invoice sharpens the picture of how UAE domestic trade actually behaves — compounding into an intelligence asset no spreadsheet-era lender can match.
Why the UAE · why now
The UAE is one of the world's great trading economies — and its SMEs are the engine. Yet the financing layer beneath domestic trade hasn't kept pace with the country's digital ambition. That gap is the opportunity.
SMEs make up the overwhelming majority of registered businesses in the UAE, per the Ministry of Economy.
Small and medium enterprises drive more than half of the UAE's non-oil economy — and its growth agenda.
The Asian Development Bank estimates a multi-trillion-dollar global shortfall in trade finance, felt hardest by SMEs.
The UAE is actively building the regulatory and technological foundations for next-generation payments and digital financial services. Asharfi.ai is designed to grow with that agenda, not around it.
Expanding SME access to finance is an explicit national priority. Infrastructure that unlocks working capital for small businesses aligns directly with where the country is heading.
Dense trade corridors, digitised government services, and a business community that adopts fast — the UAE is the ideal proving ground for domestic trade finance infrastructure before regional expansion.
AI underwriting, real-time payment rails, and modern data infrastructure have matured simultaneously. What was operationally impossible for factoring desks a decade ago is now buildable — properly.
Security & compliance philosophy
Financial infrastructure earns the right to exist through trust. These are the principles the platform is being engineered around — before the first dirham moves.
We engage with UAE regulatory frameworks before launch — not after. Licensing, supervision, and consumer protection are treated as design inputs, never obstacles.
Encryption in transit and at rest, strict access controls, and data-minimisation as default. Business data is used to serve the business — never sold, never repurposed.
Every assessment, disbursement, and settlement is designed to be traceable and explainable — to businesses, capital partners, auditors, and regulators alike.
Clear advance rates, clear fees, no fine-print mechanics. If a cost can't be explained in one sentence, it doesn't belong in the product.
Models inform decisions; accountable people govern them. Underwriting logic is monitored, challenged, and improved under human oversight — always.
Asharfi.ai is built to work alongside banks, financial institutions, and government platforms — extending the UAE's financial system, not competing with its foundations.
Asharfi.ai is in a pre-launch validation phase. Statements on this page describe design intent and the platform under development; no regulated financial services are currently offered.
Roadmap
We're building in the open about our stage: pre-launch, validating demand with the market, and designing the platform with the businesses that will use it first.
Early access
If waiting 30–120 days on approved invoices is holding your business back, tell us. Registration is free, non-binding, and takes about two minutes.
Banks, financial institutions, investors, and potential partners: use the same form and select your profile under "Industry" — the right person will respond directly.
Thank you — your registration has been received. A member of the founding team will be in touch as the pilot program takes shape.
Reference logged · Asharfi.ai early accessFrequently asked questions
Asharfi.ai is building domestic trade finance infrastructure for the UAE. The platform will let businesses unlock working capital against approved invoices, powered by AI-driven trade intelligence and regulated digital payment rails — starting with invoice-backed advances and expanding into embedded financial services.
Not yet. We're in a structured validation and pre-launch phase, and we're deliberate about saying so. Businesses that register interest now are prioritised for the pilot program, help shape the product, and access launch-partner terms when funding goes live.
Primarily UAE-based SMEs that sell on credit terms — manufacturers, distributors, logistics providers, importers, exporters, and wholesalers. The platform is also designed to work with the banks, financial institutions, investors, and enterprise partners that make up the wider trade ecosystem.
Once live: you submit an invoice your customer has already approved. Our underwriting engine assesses the receivable — the buyer, the relationship, the trade — and an advance against its value is paid out, targeted within days. Your customer pays on their normal terms; when they do, the advance settles and the remainder is released to you.
Preserving your customer relationships is a core design principle. The exact operational model — including how buyer payments are routed — is being finalised with pilot partners, and protecting the seller–buyer relationship is a fixed requirement, not a variable.
No. Registration is free and completely non-binding. It secures your place in the pilot queue, gives you a direct line to the founding team, and helps us calibrate the product to real demand. You can opt out of communication at any time.
As a starting point, not an afterthought. We're engaging with UAE regulatory frameworks during the build phase, and the platform is architected for the auditability, data protection, and governance standards expected of regulated financial infrastructure. No regulated financial services are offered until the appropriate approvals are in place.
Use the registration form above and select "Investor / VC / Family Office" or the relevant institutional profile under Industry, or write directly to hello@asharfi.ai. Institutional enquiries go straight to the founding team.