Dubai: UAE banks Emirates NBD and Mashreq have taken stakes in NewBridge Fintech Solutions, which owns LoanBook specializing in syndicated loans and private credit. In recent times, private credit operations have gained significant momentum, as borrowers look to tap critical funds from outside of banks and traditional lenders.
The LoanBook marketplace allows access global loan opportunities and ‘automates end-to-end workflows, bringing much-needed efficiency and velocity to an industry still heavily reliant on manual processes’, said a statement.
LoanBook’s funding platform was used to ‘launch and manage a multi-billion primary syndication for a large regional GRE (government-related entity)’.
"Our Corporate Venture Fund’s mission is to identify and back strategically relevant fintech and tech initiatives," said Neeraj Makin, Group Head of Strategy, Analytics and Venture Capital, Emirates NBD Group. "By investing in transformative platforms like LoanBook, we aim to streamline and accelerate the loan syndication process with a broader objective of driving technological advancements that enhance both our operations and the global loan market."
This is Emirates NBD's first investment in a fintech based outside of UAE.
Mashreq routed its NewBridge investment through NeoVentures.
"By collaborating closely with both teams (Emirates NBD and Mashreq), we will jointly address the numerous friction points in syndicated loan markets and leverage LoanBook's next-generation technologies to bring new solutions and drive real change in the regional and global loan market," said Sid Bhandari, founder and CEO of NewBridge Fintech.
"With the backing of MENAT's leading bookrunners, we will achieve the scale and resources required to grow the business and enable wider adoption amongst market participants."
LoanBook targets a $5.5 trillion annual loan issuance market across primary syndication, secondary trading, and lifecycle management workflows between borrowers, lenders and administrative agents.
