Saudi Lendo partners with Austrian Quantic on $200 million to fund small companies
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Saudi company Lendo, which specializes in Sharia-compliant debt crowdfunding, announced a strategic partnership with Austrian firm Quantic Financial Solutions to create an institutional capital programme worth up to 750 million Saudi riyals (about $200 million) for financing working capital of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Kingdom. The partnership was announced at the Money20/20 Middle East conference in Riyadh.
Lendo was founded in 2019 by Asam Al-Rai and Mohamed Jawabri, and operates as a Sharia-compliant debt crowdfunding platform under the supervision of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). The platform connects institutional and individual investors with small companies seeking financing.
The partnership does more than move money; it builds a comprehensive financial structure. Quantic, as a Vienna-based asset-management firm and member of the C-Quadrat Investment Group, will apply its expertise in managing institutional funds to supervise capital deployment in line with Lendo’s financing strategy. Quantic will also structure Sharia-compliant investment products based on assets financed for international investors, creating a continuous channel of foreign capital for financing Saudi small businesses.
‘This partnership is a pivotal milestone for Lendo and a strong endorsement of our business model,’ says Asam Al-Rai, chief executive officer and co-founder. ‘It gives us the scale and structural discipline to serve many more small companies as demand continues to grow across the Kingdom, and brings us a step closer to our goal of closing the financing gap for small firms through transparent, responsible financing.’
Dr. Dietrich Mats, co-founder of Quantic, says, ‘Lendo’s track record, lending quality, and regulatory standing make it the obvious partner for a programme of this scale in Saudi Arabia, given its leadership in the field. We look forward to financing the programme and deploying capital with discipline to support small-business growth across the Kingdom. The Sharia-compliant investment products that Quantic builds from these assets are attractive to international investors.’
The partnership represents three parallel tracks that matter for the Saudi market: first, helping close the financing gap for small companies by combining Lendo’s SAMA-supervised lending with Quantic’s institutional capital deployment, giving the sector access to financing volumes that were previously unavailable; second, supporting a national economic priority by directly contributing to the financial-sector development programme under Vision 2030 and strengthening debt crowdfunding as a legitimate pillar of the Saudi financial system; third, opening a sustainable channel for international capital through a recurring investment-product structure rather than a single transaction.
For operators in the region, the deal signals that small-business financing has become an asset class that can be securitized and sold to international investors through a Sharia-compliant structure, and that strong local regulation, such as SAMA supervision, is the condition that attracts foreign capital rather than deters it. It also shows that institutional capital is beginning to channel funds toward small-business lending as a scalable, exportable investment product, not merely a social-responsibility initiative.