Published on: 18 September، 2026
The fintech company is strengthening its presence in Saudi Arabia and the UAE while targeting the US market, as OCTA Flow seeks to redefine the accountant’s role in the age of AI agents.
AI-powered accounting solutions are moving beyond the automation of routine tasks toward systems capable of executing significant parts of the financial workflow.
This is the direction targeted by fintech startup OCTA, which has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round as it expands across the Gulf and prepares to deepen its presence in the United States.
The round was led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), with participation from Wa’ed Ventures, Plug and Play, and A-typical Ventures, alongside existing investors Sukna Ventures and Sadu Capital. The latest round brings OCTA’s total funding raised to $5.6 million.
OCTA Bets on AI to Transform the Accounting Workflow
OCTA is moving beyond the digitisation of traditional accounting processes with the launch of OCTA Flow, a platform powered by AI agents designed to handle a range of financial operations, including bookkeeping, reconciliations, and month-end closing.
The platform follows a model that keeps accountants at the center of the decision-making process. AI systems handle operational tasks, while accountants review and approve the results before they are delivered to clients.
The approach reflects a broader shift in fintech, where competition is no longer limited to providing accountants with faster software. Instead, it increasingly revolves around the ability of software to produce the work itself while keeping professional judgment and final accountability in human hands.
Jon Santillan, Co-founder and CEO of OCTA, said accountants remain central to client relationships and ultimately remain accountable for the work, adding that AI changes the amount of work accountants need to produce manually.
He noted that giving accounting firms greater operating leverage could make them more powerful and efficient, rather than positioning AI as a replacement for accountants.
More Than 520 Firms Sign Up for OCTA Flow
Early adoption figures point to growing demand for such solutions. More than 520 accounting firms signed up for access to OCTA Flow within the first six weeks of its launch, with onboarding now underway.
The figures point to a broader trend across financial services, as AI moves from being primarily an employee-assistance tool toward becoming an operational layer capable of executing daily tasks with a growing degree of autonomy, while human oversight remains in place.
Nupur Mittal, Co-founder and COO of OCTA, said software had traditionally been used by accounting firms to help get work done, whereas AI now makes it possible for software to produce the work itself.
However, she stressed that accounting still requires review, professional judgment and accountability for the outcome, keeping accounting firms in a central position even as automation expands.
172,000 Transactions Processed in a Single Month
OCTA initially focused on accounts receivable and accounts payable before expanding its platform to cover a broader range of accounting workflows.
In August 2026, the company’s platform processed approximately 172,000 transactions, which OCTA estimates freed up more than $75,000 in billable capacity.
The figure highlights the economic rationale behind accounting automation. The value is not limited to reducing the time required to process individual transactions; it can also allow accounting firms to handle a larger volume of work without a proportional increase in staffing requirements.
For fintech startups, demonstrating that automation can translate into measurable cost savings or additional revenue-generating capacity is an important step toward proving the scalability of the business model.
From Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the US Market
OCTA has used the Gulf as a launchpad for its international expansion, initially operating in Saudi Arabia and the UAE before entering the United States.
The company plans to use its new funding to strengthen its AI and engineering capabilities, automate additional financial workflows and support further expansion into new markets.
The US expansion comes as OCTA seeks to test its model beyond its initial markets. While this puts the company in a larger and highly competitive environment, it also gives it access to a substantial base of accounting firms and potential customers.
$20 Million Credit Facility Secured Earlier
The latest funding round is not OCTA’s first major financing milestone. In June 2025, the company secured a $20 million credit facility from Sukna Fund to support embedded working-capital financing solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia.
The combination of equity investment and credit financing points to the expansion of OCTA’s business model, from developing accounting software solutions to building a broader platform connecting fintech, artificial intelligence and SME financing.
With the launch of OCTA Flow and its latest funding round, the company is moving toward a model that goes beyond providing digital tools for accountants and instead seeks to make AI part of the daily operating infrastructure of accounting firms.
Under this model, the central question is no longer simply whether AI will replace accountants, but how far AI-augmented accountants can scale their workload and improve efficiency while maintaining human review and professional accountability.
OCTA and the Evolution of Fintech
OCTA’s latest funding comes amid growing investor interest in AI-powered solutions for financial and accounting services, particularly platforms capable of moving beyond support tools to systems that execute real operational tasks.
For OCTA, turning this vision into a product with real-world adoption, expanding its customer base and successfully moving from the Gulf into the US will be critical to determining whether the company can convert its new capital into sustainable global growth.
