Lendo, Quantic launch $200 million SME financing programme in Saudi Arabia
Vienna-based Quantic will deploy up to SAR750 million through Lendo's Shariah-compliant crowdfunding platform, then package the assets for overseas investors.
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Lendo has partnered with Quantic Financial Solutions on an institutional capital programme of up to SAR750 million ($200 million) to finance small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia. The two firms announced the agreement at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh.
Quantic will invest the money through Lendo, with the capital reserved for working capital financing for SMEs in the Kingdom. The Austrian asset manager is based in Vienna and is part of the C-Quadrat Investment Group. Its role includes overseeing the deployment of its capital in line with Lendo's financing strategy.
Lendo runs a Shariah-compliant debt crowdfunding platform that the Saudi Central Bank regulates and supervises. Osama AlRaee and Mohammed Jawabri founded the company in 2019, and it connects institutional and retail investors with SMEs that need funding.
What the programme covers
The money is intended to widen Lendo's working capital financing capacity and to fund the launch of new financing solutions for SMEs, which the company says will let it reach more of the Kingdom's smaller businesses. The deal is presented as a sign of institutional confidence in Saudi Arabia's debt-based crowdfunding model, and as support for the fintech ecosystem the Financial Sector Development Program is building under Vision 2030.
Foreign capital, packaged for overseas investors
Quantic will also create Shariah-compliant investment products from the assets the programme finances, and offer them to investors outside Saudi Arabia. That turns the arrangement into a channel for foreign institutional capital into Saudi SME lending, one the companies expect to reuse rather than treat as a single deal.
Lendo frames the programme as a way to narrow the SME financing gap, pairing SAMA-regulated origination with institutional capital deployment at a scale the market has lacked. It also fits the Financial Sector Development Program's goals for fintech and SME lending under Vision 2030, and strengthens the case for debt-based crowdfunding as a component of the Kingdom's financial sector.
AlRaee, Lendo's chief executive and co-founder, called the partnership a milestone for the company and an endorsement of its business model. He said it provides the scale and structuring discipline to serve many more SMEs as demand grows, and brings Lendo closer to its aim of closing the SME financing gap through transparent, responsible funding.
Dr Dietrich Matthes, a founding partner at Quantic Financial Solutions, said Lendo's track record, origination quality and regulatory standing made it the obvious partner for a programme of this size in Saudi Arabia, and the leader in the field. He said Quantic looks forward to funding the programme and deploying the capital with discipline to support SME growth, and that the Shariah-compliant products the firm builds from the assets appeal to investors internationally.
