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UAE-based SME lender CredibleX has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Mubadala Investment Company, with participation from existing investor Further Ventures.
Founded in 2023 by Anand Nagaraj, Ahmad Malik and Hassan Reda, CredibleX is an ADGM-regulated lender that provides SMEs with working capital through revenue-based financing, receivables financing and payable financing via an embedded, API-enabled platform.
Rather than acquiring SME customers directly, the company distributes through more than 70 partners, plugging its lending products into platforms and networks where small businesses already operate. CredibleX says this embedded approach allows it to scale origination without the customer acquisition costs that weigh on direct-to-SME lenders.
"This milestone represents strong validation of our vision to transform SME financing through embedded finance," said Nagaraj. "SMEs are at the heart of the UAE economy, and this investment will enable us to significantly expand our platform, scale our partnerships, and continue delivering flexible, transparent financing solutions." Further Ventures managing partner Faisal Al Hammadi described the Mubadala commitment as "a strong validation of the embedded finance opportunity in SME credit and CredibleX's ability to execute at scale."
The Series A builds on a rapid capitalisation trajectory. CredibleX raised $55 million in seed funding in late 2024, led by Further Ventures with debt from Kilgour Williams Capital, followed by a $100 million senior secured credit facility from Pollen Street Capital in September 2025, marking the London-based private credit firm's first transaction in the UAE. Total capital raised by CredibleX now exceeds $170 million across equity and debt in under three years.
CredibleX is part of a crowded and rapidly capitalising field of startups attacking the GCC's SME financing gap, estimated at $250 billion across the region, where small businesses account for roughly half of GDP and two-thirds of employment but remain chronically underserved by traditional banks.
In the past year alone, Dubai-based Comfi raised $65 million in a pre-Series A combining equity and debt for its B2B buy now, pay later product, Saudi-based erad secured a $125 million facility from Jefferies to scale embedded SME finance, UAE's Flow48 raised $69 million in a Series A for revenue-based financing, and Egypt-founded FlapKap has been scaling its merchant cash advance product across the region.
Mubadala's MENA Venture Capital Fund has been one of the more active institutional backers of UAE and regional startups over the past year, with recent investments including property finance platform Holo, real estate investment app Stake, Egyptian grocery platform Breadfast, and enterprise AI company AppliedAI.
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