Synapse Analytics raises USD $13 million in Series A

Synapse Analytics has raised USD $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Partech, bringing its total funding to USD $17 million.

Algebra Ventures and Silicon Badia also participated in the round. Terms and valuation were not disclosed.

The Abu Dhabi-based company sells decisioning software to regulated financial institutions, including banks, non-bank lenders, fintechs and telecommunications groups across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. It plans to use the new funding to expand its team, develop its product and extend its international reach.

Founded in 2018 by Ahmed Abaza and Galal Elbeshbishy, Synapse focuses on credit and risk processes used by financial institutions. Its software is designed to let risk and credit teams build, test, version and deploy policies within their own organisation's infrastructure, rather than sending sensitive data to external systems.

The system can be installed on-premises, in private or public cloud environments, in sovereign cloud settings or in air-gapped deployments. It is used across functions including onboarding, credit scoring, fraud, anti-money laundering, collections, customer segmentation and customer value management.

Market pressure

Financial institutions face growing pressure to make lending and risk decisions more quickly while meeting regulatory and data-governance requirements. That has increased demand for systems that allow the use of AI models without moving customer data outside the institution's control.

Synapse says its models run within a client's own perimeter, helping institutions keep control of data, policy changes and the intelligence generated from decisions. Teams can also test proposed policy changes against historical data before putting them into use.

According to the company, its platform has supported more than USD $200 million in lending and helped clients reduce non-performing loans by up to 40%.

Ahmed Abaza outlined the company's view of the opportunity.

"Our mission is to give financial institutions the intelligence and decision infrastructure they need to make faster, more secure decisions to reduce risk, unlock growth and build stronger customer relationships. Partech's investment reflects the momentum we have built and gives us the backing of a leading global technology investor to pursue the next stage of that ambition," said Ahmed Abaza, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Synapse Analytics.

Investor backing

Partech is a global technology investment firm headquartered in Paris. It manages close to €3 billion in assets and has a portfolio of 220 companies across 40 countries.

Lewam Kefela, a Principal at the firm, said Synapse had built a strong position in its target markets.

"We're excited to back Synapse Analytics as it builds the category-leading decisioning infrastructure for banks and financial institutions across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Ahmed, Galal and their team have the technical depth and execution to scale it, and we look forward to supporting their next phase of growth," said Lewam Kefela, Principal at Partech.

The investment adds to a growing flow of capital into financial technology groups serving emerging markets, particularly those building tools for lenders and regulated institutions. Investors continue to look for companies that can address compliance, credit risk and fraud management alongside the push to digitise financial services.

For Synapse, the funding comes as lenders seek systems that can adapt underwriting and monitoring more quickly as borrower behaviour and market conditions change. Its latest work includes intelligent agents intended to help internal teams refine credit policies and monitor portfolios in real time.

Galal Elbeshbishy, Co-founder and COO, described that shift in strategy.

"We built Synapse Analytics to help financial institutions make better underwriting decisions. Today, we're taking that a step further by working with banks, fintechs and other firms to enable intelligent agents that actively work alongside their teams - helping them build and refine credit policies, continuously enhance underwriting criteria and monitor portfolios in real time. These agents identify emerging opportunities and risks, help institutions grow their portfolios while reducing risk, and allow them to react quickly as market conditions and borrower behavior change. Our vision is to create the AI operating system for the new age of finance," said Elbeshbishy.