Pollen Street Capital announces $100 million senior secured credit facility to CredibleX

Pollen Street Capital (“Pollen Street”) today announces a new $100 million senior secured credit facility to CredibleX, a United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) based SME lender. CredibleX specialises in providing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with fast access to working capital through its digital application platform. The business has differentiated itself through focusing on embedded partnerships, allowing it to efficiently scale across its distribution partners SME networks.

Founded in 2023, CredibleX has grown into a 40+ member team in the UAE, working with over 60 distribution partners. Regulated by the FSRA at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) with a lending license, CredibleX provides SMEs with a full suite of working capital finance solutions, including Receivables Financing, Payables Financing, and Short-Term Loans. The company is led by co-founders Anand Nagaraj, Ahmad Malik, and Hassan Reda, bringing strong experience from global banks, Fintechs, and Neo Banks.

This transaction represents Pollen Street’s first in the UAE and comes shortly after the opening of Pollen Street offices in Abu Dhabi, demonstrating the depth of the pipeline and the expertise of the team in sourcing opportunities to back resilient and innovative businesses with high-quality collateral. The funding will support CredibleX to continue its strong growth, enabling easier access to quality financing options for SMEs in the region.

Anand Nagaraj, Co-Founder & CEO at CredibleX, commented: “We are delighted to partner with Pollen Street for this $100 million liquidity and truly humbled to be Pollen Street’s first transaction in the UAE. This funding represents a major milestone in CredibleX’s growth journey and validates our embedded finance approach to SME lending in the UAE market. The facility will enable us to significantly expand our footprint in the UAE market and better serve the growing demand for working capital solutions among SMEs. Pollen Street’s expertise in private credit solutions and their confidence in our business model positions us perfectly to accelerate our mission of democratizing access to credit for small and medium enterprises in the UAE and beyond”

Matthew Potter, Partner at Pollen Street, commented: “We are thrilled to partner with CredibleX and provide this senior secured facility to further support the business as it grows and expands its loan book. The team have extensive experience in lending and building businesses in the region for over 20 years. This deal is also a milestone for Pollen Street as our first transaction in the region, following the opening of Pollen Street offices in Abu Dhabi, illustrating our strong pipeline and ability to be selective with opportunities to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”

Ethan Saggu, Investment Director at Pollen Street, added: “We are excited to collaborate with CredibleX and the management team, who collectively have a depth of experience in lending and building businesses across the region. UAE is a fast-growing economy which continues to diversify away from the oil sector, and this has led to the creation of a vibrant SME sector, which itself has created a working capital requirement for these fast-growing SMEs. Our facility, managed by the strong leadership team, will support CredibleX to grow its lending volumes by fulfilling the local liquidity demand.”