Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 27th, 2025 - erad (www.erad.co), the Riyadh-headquartered alternative financing platform for SMEs, has partnered with Jefferies (with co-investment from Channel Capital) to secure $125 million in a credit deal, to accelerate embedded finance solutions across the GCC. Once the transaction is finalised, it will mark Jefferies' first GCC asset-backed financing transaction, and will support the firm's plans to grow their presence in the Kingdom.
Building on erad's strong 6x year-over-year growth and over $700 million in funding requests, the scalable funding facility offers significant expansion capacity to meet growing demand from SMEs in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC. Funds allocated for Saudi SMEs will be deployed through CMA-licensed direct financing funds managed by Erad Partners Capital.
Salem Abu-Hammour, Co-founder of erad, said: "Our partnership with Jefferies represents a transformative moment for SME financing in the region. By embedding financing directly into existing supplier and platform relationships, we're making working capital as accessible as a payment transaction. The support from the regulators, Jefferies and Channel Capital, demonstrates the strategic importance of alternative finance in supporting the Kingdom's goal of SME growth."
SMEs represent the backbone of the GCC's economic diversification efforts, contributing approximately 50 percent of regional GDP and employing two-thirds of the workforce. Despite their critical role in driving Vision 2030 objectives and other economic transformation across the Gulf states, SMEs face a significant $250 billion financing gap that limits their growth potential.
Mark Collier, Managing Director at Jefferies, added: "We are proud to work with erad and the Channel team on one of our first asset backed financing solutions in the GCC, and our partnership with erad represents a significant step forward in creating seamless access to capital for GCC SMEs which we think erad are uniquely well positioned to provide. The combination of erad's proprietary technology platform with our global experience in asset backed financing solutions will enable erad to address the real-time working capital needs of SMEs across the region."
Johan Nisser, CIO at Channel, added: "Channel is proud to team up with the Erad Team, Jefferies and other stakeholders involved in this transaction, our first in KSA and a continuation of our seven years of sharia compliant asset backed finance in the GCC region. We are excited to support the aspirations of Erad in powering businesses across the middle east region in this inaugural ABS financing.”
Following this transaction, erad is expanding into multiple sectors and products, including embedded finance products, enabling suppliers and business platforms to offer integrated financing at the point of sale. The model is already live with several strategic partners, including suppliers of healthcare and F&B products in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The deal builds on erad's strong momentum following its recent $33 million debt financing round led by Stride Ventures. Since launch, erad has processed over SAR 250 million in financing for regional SMEs with its 48-hour approval process, addressing the GCC's estimated $250 billion SME credit gap.
About erad
Founded in 2022 by Salem Abu-Hammour, Faris Yaghmour, Abdulmalik Almeheini, and Youssef Said, erad is a financing platform that helps SMEs access Shariah-compliant working capital solutions. Using a data-driven approach, erad leverages technology to offer fast and flexible financing to businesses in Saudi Arabia and the UAE across different sectors such as retail, healthcare, F&B, and more.
For media inquiries, please contact: media@erad.co
About Jefferies
Jefferies (NYSE: JEF) is a leading global, full-service investment banking and capital markets firm that provides advisory, sales and trading, research and wealth and asset management services. With more than 47 offices in 21 countries around the world, we offer insights and expertise to investors, companies and governments.
For media enquiries, please contact: MediaContact@Jefferies.com
About Channel
Channel is a leading global alternative asset manager with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across asset-based lending solutions to the innovation economy and specialty finance sectors. Since 2007, our investing expertise has served the financial return needs of our clients and provided businesses with innovative debt capital solutions for growth. As of 30 September 2025, Channel had approximately $26 billion in cumulative capital invested and facilitated financing in over 35 countries. For more information, please visit www.channelcapital.io.
