Structured credit transaction arranged with Menhir Capital Management (DIFC) and issued through Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL targets growing demand for non-bank SME credit in the UAE.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 8 June 2025: Kingsbury & Partners (Luxembourg) today announces a USD 7,500,000 senior secured facility for Aura Finance FZ-LLC, a UAE-based embedded lending and specialty finance company, structured as a Credit Linked Note (CLN) and issued through Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL, the firm's Luxembourg-registered securitisation vehicle.

The transaction has been arranged with Menhir Capital Management with counterparties including Fundamentals S.A. and Kaiser Partner Privatbank AG. The CLN is anchored by a UAE-based family office, reflecting strong local institutional appetite for the transaction.

Embedded Credit for UAE SMEs: Lending Where Business Already Happens

Demand for non-bank credit among small and medium-sized enterprises in the UAE continues to exceed what the traditional banking system can supply. Aura Finance addresses that gap not as a conventional balance-sheet lender, but as embedded lending infrastructure - powering the digital platforms that SMEs already use, including B2B marketplaces, SaaS tools, vendor portals, and payment platforms, to offer credit directly to their customers at the point of transaction.

Through a single API or white-label integration, Aura handles underwriting, capital deployment, compliance, and servicing end to end, while its platform partners retain control of the customer experience. It is this embedded model - credit delivered inside the tools SMEs are already using, rather than through a separate loan application - that differentiates Aura's origination approach and underpins the growth in its lending book.

Aura also extends credit directly to SMEs through its own invoice financing product, allowing businesses to draw funds against outstanding receivables without collateral.

Proceeds from the CLN facility will be deployed by Aura Finance directly into that lending book, with exposure diversified across sectors, platform partners, and emirates within the UAE.

John Hubball, Chief Investment Officer at Kingsbury & Partners, commented: "The UAE SME lending opportunity is real and it is structural, and Aura Finance is approaching it from the right angle. Embedding credit inside the platforms SMEs already use solves the distribution problem that has always made this segment expensive to reach. Structuring this through our Luxembourg platform gives investors a clean, regulated entry point to that opportunity."

A Maturing Market for UAE Embedded Finance and SME Credit

The UAE's embedded finance and SME credit sector has moved quickly from early-stage experimentation to institutional scale. The country's B2B buy-now-pay-later market alone is estimated to be worth close to USD 2 billion, with growth forecasts in the low twenty per cent range annually through the rest of the decade. Several UAE-based embedded and SME lending platforms have closed sizeable equity and debt rounds over the past year, with sovereign and institutional capital increasingly backing the sector - a signal that the embedded credit model is being recognised as a durable infrastructure layer rather than a niche fintech product.

That momentum has been supported by regulatory developments at federal level, including the Central Bank of the UAE's open banking and financial infrastructure initiatives, which have made it easier for licensed non-bank lenders to access the transaction data needed for real-time underwriting. The combined effect is a market in which embedded credit providers can scale origination faster and more cheaply than the standalone lending models that preceded them.

Transaction Structure: A Luxembourg CLN Backed by First-Ranking Security

The CLN is issued through Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL, the Luxembourg-registered securitisation vehicle of Kingsbury & Partners, and is backed by a first-ranking security interest over Aura Finance's underlying SME loan portfolio. The note is anchored by a UAE-based family office.

Structure of the Aura Finance facility: a UAE family office anchors the credit linked note issued by Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL, which funds a USD 7.5m senior secured facility with first-ranking security over Aura Finance’s SME loan portfolio, deployed to UAE SMEs through embedded platforms and invoice finance.
Structure of the USD 7.5m Aura Finance facility, issued through Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL.

The Product & Risk Committee of Kingsbury & Partners (Luxembourg) approved the facility following a review of Aura Finance's corporate structure, management team, underwriting policy, and historical portfolio performance. The Committee assessed borrower eligibility criteria, portfolio concentration, UAE regulatory standing, and the co-arrangement structure before granting sign-off.

Update (October 2026): The Product & Risk Committee has since been renamed the Credit Committee.

The use of Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL as the issuing vehicle provides institutional investors with a Luxembourg-domiciled wrapper for exposure to UAE private credit.

Ben Rockell, Managing Partner at Kingsbury & Partners, added: "Our Luxembourg platform was built precisely for transactions like this. It allows us to bring institutional-quality structuring to a market where the underlying credit opportunity is compelling, but the access point has historically been limited."

About Aura Finance FZ-LLC

Aura Finance FZ-LLC is a UAE-based embedded lending and specialty finance company. Its credit engine enables digital platforms — including B2B marketplaces, SaaS tools, insurance providers, and vendor portals — to offer credit directly to their SME customers through an API or white-label integration. Aura handles underwriting, capital deployment, regulatory compliance, and collections, while platform partners retain control of the customer experience. The company also offers direct invoice financing to SMEs and operates within the UAE regulatory framework with an established origination track record and diversified SME borrower base.

About Kingsbury & Partners

Kingsbury & Partners is a British-owned private credit and structured finance firm headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The firm specialises in originating, structuring, and distributing private credit transactions for institutional allocators, family offices, and professional investors. Structured transactions are issued through Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL, the firm's Luxembourg-domiciled securitisation vehicle. K&P focuses on transactions backed by SME lending, growth-stage fintech receivables, and non-bank financial institution loan books. The firm acts as structuring adviser and placement agent across its deal pipeline.

Media Enquiries

Kingsbury & Partners

Nathan Rockell: Nathan.rockell@kingsburyandpartners.ae

This press release is issued for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any financial instrument. This communication is directed at professional and institutional investors only. Kingsbury Securitisation Platform SARL is incorporated in Luxembourg. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.