UAE Beehive and ZigChain to tokenize private credit for SMEs
ZIGChain, the blockchain built for regulated investment products on-chain for institutions has partnered with Beehive, the Middle East’s digital SME lending platform part of the e& company group, to explore the tokenization of private credit opportunities for SMEs in the UAE, on ZIGChain’s network.
According to the announcement, this is an important step given that SMEs generate over 60% of GDP in the UAE but receive less than 10% of bank credit.
That structural gap, part of a $475 billion shortfall across MENA, has persisted despite a decade of fintech progress. The core problem is the distribution and access of these loans. T
Both parties want to offer regulated UAE-based SME private credit on-chain, enabling institutional-grade real-world yield products and expanding access to transparent, programmable private credit markets.
As part of the initiative, the two companies will jointly assess the issuance, distribution, and on-chain servicing workflows that are required to structure compliant, tokenized credit exposure.
Abdul Rafay Gadit, Co-founder and Head of Global Markets of ZIGChain explained, that the partnership with Beehive is a milestone, and pairing it with blockchain infrastructure designed for real world assets opens the door to bring private credit onchain.”
Peter Tavener, CEO, Co-Founder of Beehive: “Beehive was built as a digital-first private credit platform and has demonstrated its ability to originate, underwrite and service SME funding at scale. Our evolution from P2P funding to institutional capital strengthened the depth and stability of our funding base. Tokenization represents the next phase of market development, expanding access and deepening the market for high-quality private credit.”
In December 2025, DeFa by InvoiceMate, the Deloitte Future 100 company UAE company, announced it would tokenize its AI-validated SME financing opportunities on ZIGChain, bringing institutional-grade private financing opportunities to over one million users in the Layer 1 blockchain’s ecosystem.
As per the announcement at the time, the integration marked an expansion for ZIGChain’s real-world asset infrastructure, demonstrating how established fintech companies can leverage blockchain to democratize access to the $5.2 trillion global SME financing gap.
