UAE-based e& enterprise acquires majority stake in Mena’s peer-to-peer digital platform Beehive

UAE-based e& enterprise, a part of e&,   has purchase a majority stake in Beehive, Mena’s main peer-to-peer digital platform to faucet into alternatives within the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) lending market.

Beehive, based in 2014, leads the crowdfunding platform house within the UAE, with operations in KSA and Oman. It connects creditworthy SMEs searching for finance with buyers, each personal and institutional, providing typical in addition to Sharia-compliant loans. The corporate lately reached the milestone of facilitating over Dh1.5 billion price of loans.

Salvador Anglada, CEO of e& enterprise commented: “The acquisition of Beehive’s digital lending platform marks the second step in e& enterprise’s journey within the Fintech house, after the launch of UAE Commerce Join in 2021. SMEs are vital drivers of the economic system and there’s a want greater than ever to help their distinctive financing wants. With Beehive, we’ve got the proper technological innovation to speed up our agenda within the UAE and past.”

With this acquisition, e& enterprise will have the ability to present an revolutionary lending answer to handle the $250 billion SME credit score hole throughout the GCC area combining its robust model positioning with a fintech platform. This additionally marks the subsequent step in e& enterprise’s enlargement because the transfer demonstrates its dedication to opening new avenues of development throughout the UAE and within the area whereas enabling Beehive to scale its enterprise and broaden its choices.

The acquisition is in step with UAE’s Nationwide Agenda for Entrepreneurship which goals to ascertain the nation to develop into an entrepreneurial nation by 2031.

Craig Moore, Beehive’s Founder & CEO added “This strategic alignment presents an enormous alternative to extend and speed up financing to SMEs throughout the area. The market-leading model, attain and imaginative and prescient of e& and e& enterprise permits Beehive to drive extra innovation and collaboration into the market.  As one of many very first regional Fintech, it is a validation of the Beehive group’s unbelievable effort during the last 9 years and displays the vibrancy and success of the UAE’s startup ecosystem.”

Conventional lending to SMEs is paper-intensive and depends on collateral and ensures. Fintechs and various lenders have lately stepped into this house introducing developments similar to one-time KYC, quick onboarding, and using data-driven credit score scoring. The regulatory construction can also be evolving quickly within the area, fostering a conducive atmosphere for each liquidity suppliers and debtors.

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