Emirati startup gets $850,000 seed funding

Lune, a data startup, has announced that it has secured seed funding of $850,000 with the support of the Dubai Future Fund, Flat6Labs, and a number of other angel investors. The company, which collects unprecedented data from consumer financial transactions, operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and will use the funding to expand across the GCC by the end of the year. An obstacle Emirati entrepreneur Hilal Lootah, one of the company’s founders, said: “While banking and financial institutions in the region continue to innovate at breakneck speed, the lack of detail regarding transaction data remains a major barrier to the sector, preventing consumers from effectively controlling their spending, and preventing banking and financial institutions from being able to control their spending effectively. And insurance companies may offer new services or improve them according to customer requirements.”