It was announced that one of the UAE’s leading institutional investors EDB aka The Emirates Development Bank has signed an agreement with the country’s first peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, Beehive. While allocating just over $8M which is roughly AED 30M in funding for the platform to distribute to creditworthy small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As the entities work to increase funding options for the country’s SMEs, this particular initiation will likely include Beehive facilitating loans to SMEs. It’ll be working while seeking expansion or to increase working capital or both at the same time.
EDB first pledged to lend a wider AED 30B over five years before the agreement took place. The businesses included rising growth sectors which are manufacturing, healthcare, infrastructure, food security, and technology. One of the main goals of EDB is to strategize for helping SMEs while it improves their overall contribution to UAE’s critical non-oil GDP to over 70 percent by the end of this year.
Commenting on the partnership, EDB’s CEO Ahmed Mohamed Al Naqbi announced that “the collaboration with Beehive is part of our mission to bridge the funding gap by offering SMEs greater and easier access to financial sources. Through our combined efforts, we look forward to strengthening the SME ecosystem and supporting the UAE’s goals to build a robust knowledge-based economy.”
The platform itself links SMEs who are looking for financing assistance in return for something that benefits both sides. The link is build up through crowdfunding technology with investors that are willing to fulfill their financial requests. Their dynamic business model pretty much receives the benefits from both retail and institutional investors in order to increase streamline funding and liquidity for their business goals to be achieved.
To apply for loans, SMEs are invited to visit https://business.beehive.ae/UAEAccount/Register .
