Pemo clears CBUAE hurdle to hold SME funds and launch wallets

Pemo has secured in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for a Stored Value Facilities (SVF) licence, a regulatory step that would let the Dubai-based spend management platform hold and move its business customers' funds on its own regulated infrastructure rather than routing every transaction through a partner bank. The approval positions Pemo, which serves more than 6,000 UAE businesses, to move beyond corporate cards and expense software into digital wallets and fund-holding products, and marks the start of its shift from a spend management tool toward a broader financial services provider for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In-principle approval is not the licence itself. Under the CBUAE's SVF framework, the regulator issues conditional approval once an applicant demonstrates a credible governance, safeguarding and anti-money-laundering structure, then grants the full licence after remaining pre-conditions are met. Pemo says it expects to complete that process in the coming months. The company describes itself as among the first spend management platforms in the UAE to reach the in-principle stage, a claim FinanceX could not independently verify against the CBUAE's public licensing records and which should be treated as company-stated positioning.

What does an SVF licence actually let Pemo do?

The Stored Value Facilities regime, set out in CBUAE Circular No. 6/2020, is the onshore rulebook governing any entity that holds customer money in a wallet or prepaid product outside the DIFC and ADGM free zones. A full SVF licence would authorise Pemo to hold customer balances directly, letting businesses load, hold and spend funds inside the platform without waiting on traditional bank transfer windows for every movement of their own money.

The prudential bar is high. The CBUAE sets a minimum paid-up capital of AED 15 million for SVF licensees and requires them to hold aggregate capital funds equal to at least 5% of customer float, the pool of stored customer money, with that capital obligation rising as balances grow. Those requirements, alongside daily float safeguarding and reconciliation rules, are the reason the licence functions as a genuine barrier to entry rather than a formality, and they explain why holding one materially changes what a platform can offer.

Why is this a bigger step than a product update?

For Pemo, the licence would close the gap between managing a company's spending and actually holding its cash. Today the platform issues Mastercard corporate cards and automates invoices, approvals and expense reconciliation. Holding stored value on its own infrastructure would let it fund those cards more flexibly, give customers more direct access to balances already sitting in their accounts, and open the door to wallet-based products it cannot legally offer as an unlicensed intermediary.

It also changes the company's regulatory standing. A spend management platform that depends on a banking partner to hold funds is one layer removed from the customer relationship; an SVF licensee owns that relationship and the infrastructure beneath it. That is the same structural shift that other UAE fintechs have pursued through the SVF route, and it typically signals an intent to build recurring, deposit-adjacent revenue rather than transaction fees alone.

How does this fit Pemo's trajectory?

Pemo launched its platform in 2022 alongside a USD 12 million seed round co-led by Shorooq Partners and Cherry Ventures, with participation from FinTech Collective, Speedinvest and Antler. In November 2024 it raised a USD 7 million Pre-Series A co-led by Shorooq and Augmentum Fintech, and at that point reported AED 1.4 billion in annualised transactions after roughly two years of UAE operations. Its customer base has grown from around 1,000 businesses at the time of its 2023 Mastercard partnership to the 6,000-plus it cites today. The SVF approval reads as the logical next stage of that arc: from software and cards toward regulated money movement.

Why This Matters to FinanceX Readers

The SVF licence is the instrument that turns a fintech from a distribution layer into a balance-sheet participant, and watching which platforms clear the CBUAE's prudential bar is a useful read on where UAE fintech competition is heading. SMEs account for more than 90% of companies operating in the UAE and over 60% of non-oil GDP, yet remain structurally underbanked. Pemo's press release puts SME access to bank funding at around 10%; most independent estimates, including World Economic Forum analysis, place UAE SME credit closer to 5% of total bank lending, so the underlying funding gap is arguably wider than the company suggests. Either way, the direction of travel is clear: fintechs with existing SME distribution are acquiring the regulatory infrastructure to hold and move customer money themselves, applying direct competitive pressure to the transaction and cash-management franchises of traditional business banks.

For investors, an SVF licence signals a company positioning for higher lifetime value per customer and deposit-adjacent economics, not just software subscriptions.