For many SMEs, the most frustrating financial problems are not dramatic. They are the daily accumulation of receipts, employee expenses, approval requests, reimbursements, accounting entries and disconnected corporate cards.
Pemo has built its business around eliminating that friction.
Co-founded and led by Ayham Gorani, the UAE-based fintech combines corporate cards, expense management and accounting automation within a single platform designed primarily for small and medium-sized businesses.
Gorani, a computer scientist and serial entrepreneur who moved to the UAE in 2011, co-founded Pemo in 2022 after building and exiting an earlier technology business. Under his leadership, Pemo has grown into a platform used by thousands of companies across the UAE.
The core proposition centres on visibility and control.
Companies can issue physical and virtual corporate cards, establish spending limits and merchant restrictions, automate receipt collection, manage employee reimbursements and synchronise transactions with accounting platforms including QuickBooks, Xero and Tally. Pemo increasingly uses AI to automate expense categorisation and other administrative tasks.
In 2026, however, Pemo began moving significantly beyond expense software.
In July the company received in-principle approval for a Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE. Once the licensing process is completed, the authorisation is intended to give Pemo the ability to hold and manage business funds digitally and introduce wallet functionality and other financial products.
A month later, Pemo launched a business-account proposition in partnership with ruya, integrating Sharia-compliant cash-management functionality into its platform and allowing qualifying SMEs to put surplus funds to work while maintaining operational access to liquidity.
These developments reveal the larger strategy.
Expense management provides Pemo with a valuable position inside the finance department of an SME. From that starting point, the company can potentially expand into accounts, payments, working capital, cash management and other services.
It is a model seen globally in the rise of fintech operating systems for businesses—but Pemo is adapting it specifically to the UAE and wider MENA environment.
Under Gorani, Pemo's transformation from spend-management tool into broader financial platform could make it an increasingly important part of the infrastructure on which the region's SMEs operate.