Someone always pays first. Then they spend two weeks in the group chat asking politely for their money back. Qattah does the asking, so you don't have to.
Why not just use Splitwise
Splitwise solved arithmetic. In Saudi group spending, the arithmetic takes ten seconds and the awkwardness takes three weeks. Three things it gets wrong here.
You send the link to eight guys. Two make accounts. The rest reply "just send me your IBAN". The tool dies at the invite.
Weekly chalet nights, group eidiya, a family sandooq, a kashta where one guy buys the meat and another the wood — none of it fits a generic "expense".
A balance sitting in an app collects nothing. Someone still has to open the group chat and ask. That someone is always the person who already paid.
The idea
In Arabic, the word for splitting a cost and the word for cat are one letter of vowelling apart. That's not a coincidence to hide — it's the whole brand. A cartoon cat can send the reminder that a grown man cannot. The awkwardness moves off the person who fronted the money and onto a mascot nobody resents.
It also buys us the cheapest growth channel in the Gulf: a sticker pack. Every nudge that lands in a WhatsApp group is an ad that arrives as a joke.
The product
Scored on impact against effort. Ship the first tier and you have a real product; everything after it is depth, not survival.
The organiser signs up. Nobody else has to. Participants tap a link, type their first name, and they're in the tab — no password, no download.
Polite, warm, and clearly from the app rather than from you. Escalates gently over days. You never have to type "أخوي، الفلوس" to your cousin again.
A married couple counts as two. Kids count as zero. One guy says "I'll cover an extra hundred." Weights, fixed amounts, and exclusions on any line.
Eight people, fourteen expenses, one answer: three transfers instead of twenty-two. Qattah collapses the web of debts before anyone opens their bank app.
Each person saves how they like to be paid — IBAN, STC Pay number, or phone. One tap copies it, or opens the wallet app straight to a transfer.
Right-to-left by default, Hijri and Gregorian dates side by side, riyal formatting that looks native. English is the translation here, not the original.
Snap the bill, Qattah reads the lines in Arabic or English, and everyone taps the items they actually ordered. No, you're not paying for the shrimp.
The same eight guys, every Thursday. Qattah opens this week's tab on its own, remembers the usual split, and keeps a running season total.
A wedding gift, a newborn, a farewell. Set the goal, watch it fill, and keep the whole thing invisible to the person receiving it.
Multiple currencies with the rate locked when the trip starts, so nobody argues in September about what the lira was worth in July.
A plan starts as an invitation. Confirm attendance first, and the headcount flows straight into the split when the money starts moving.
A recurring monthly contribution for the extended family fund, with a visible ledger everyone trusts and nobody has to administer by hand.
Everyone pays into Qattah, the organiser withdraws once. Far stronger product, but it means holding other people's money — needs a payment partner and regulatory cover.
Message the number, "دفعت ٤٠٠ ريال لحم", and it lands in the tab. Meets people where the plan already happens.
We already know a group is about to spend 1,200 riyal on a chalet. Listing and booking is the natural next step, and the first real margin.
Templates
Generic "create an expense" is a blank page. Qattah opens on the occasion, with the split rule already set the way that occasion is normally handled.
Rental plus food, one payer up front, same group most weeks.
A wedding, a newborn, a colleague leaving. Amounts vary, and it stays secret.
Many payers over many days, kids don't pay, settle once at the end.
One buys meat, one buys wood, one brings the tent. Nobody tracked any of it.
One phone orders for twelve people. Half the table ate half the menu.
A standing monthly contribution with a ledger the whole family can see.
How money moves
Holding funds means licensing, capital requirements, and a year of waiting. Version one points people at the rails they already use and confirms it happened.
He adds it to the tab in about eight seconds, or photographs the receipt.
Shares applied, debts collapsed, and every member gets a single number.
One tap copies Faisal's IBAN, or opens their wallet app on the transfer screen.
Two-sided confirmation. The tab closes itself once the last person clears.
What we point at, and when.
Identity
Deep majlis green carries the trust. One burnt coral does all the asking, and it appears nowhere else — so when it shows up, you know someone wants paying.
Green reads as generosity and hospitality here, not as a bank. The neutral is tinted green rather than beige so the whole page feels like one material.
"Small reminder — your share is 150 riyal." Light, specific, and clearly sent by the app.
"Faisal is still waiting for your payment." Names the creditor, creates the exact tension we exist to remove.
"Everyone's settled. Nice one." Closing a tab should feel like a small win, not a receipt.
"Outstanding balance overdue by 6 days." Debt-collection language. Friends are not accounts receivable.
Arabic that sounds spoken, not translated — Khaleeji register, never formal newsreader Arabic. The name is slang. The whole product should sound like it.
Business model
Charging participants kills the network before it forms. Everything a guest touches stays free forever; money comes from the organiser, and later from where groups spend.
Unlimited groups, unlimited members, equal and weighted splits, nudges.
Receipt scanning, multi-currency trips, full history and exports, custom group cover.
A filled gift pot redeems straight into a card the group buys together.
Esteraha and chalet listings booked and split in one flow.
Pre-mortem
Four ways Qattah dies, and what has to be true in the build to prevent each one.
People just typed the number in the group chat. Opening a website felt like more work than not opening it.
Guard: creating a tab must take under fifteen seconds, and the output must be a message you paste into WhatsApp.
One person maintained the tab. The other seven never opened the link, so the balances were fiction.
Guard: guest join with no account, and one screen that answers "what do I owe and how do I pay it".
Perfect for one holiday, then nobody came back. Great retention for eleven days, none after.
Guard: standing circles and the family sandooq ship early — they are the only weekly reasons to return.
A new website asking for bank details felt wrong, so people left the field empty and settled outside the app.
Guard: masked storage, Saudi hosting, an Arabic privacy policy at launch, and phone-number settling as the default instead.