UAE Fintech Sovra Raises Over $2 Million in Pre-Seed Round

UAE-based fintech startup Sovra has raised more than $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Pharsalus Capital, with participation from regional and international angel investors.

Backers in the round included Ramp founder Karim Atiyeh, Lean Technologies founder Hisham Al-Falih, 21Shares founder Hany Rashwan and Orascom Development Holding chairman Naguib Sawiris, among others.

Founded in 2025 by Ahmad Wehbi, Sovra offers a global dollar account platform that allows users to hold digital dollars, earn yield, transfer money internationally within seconds and spend through cards supported by Visa and Mastercard. The platform operates through self-custodial accounts, giving users sole access to their funds.

Dollar balances are denominated in USDC, the US dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle. According to the company, each digital dollar is backed by one US dollar held in reserve. Sovra also connects users to third-party decentralised finance protocols offering yield and enables free transfers between accounts.

The startup said it is initially targeting young professionals across the Middle East and North Africa, university students and members of the region's diaspora. It noted that around two-thirds of adults across MENA remain unbanked or underbanked, while remittance fees can exceed 6% and transfers often take several days to complete.

Wehbi said the product was partly shaped by his experience during Lebanon's 2019 financial crisis, when bank deposits were frozen and the local currency lost much of its value.

"There has always been something between people and their money; a bank, a border, a fee, a policy, a form," Wehbi said. "The technology to remove the middleman now exists. Sovra is the simplest way in. Your money works for you and answers only to you."

The company operates with a distributed team across the Middle East and Europe. The new funding will be used to expand its engineering and product capabilities ahead of its public launch.