Zamanat has announced its sponsorship of Zamanat Fund CEIC Limited, a closed-ended private credit fund domiciled in the Dubai International Financial Centre and structured with tokenized interests. The vehicle carries a target size of up to $100 million and is positioned to direct capital toward small and medium-sized enterprises across the Gulf Cooperation Council that face limited access to conventional bank lending.

The fund addresses an estimated $250 billion financing shortfall for SMEs in the GCC, where only 11 percent of such businesses currently obtain credit. In the United Arab Emirates, SMEs account for more than half of gross domestic product and the bulk of private-sector employment, yet they receive less than 10 percent of total bank lending.

Fund Structure and Digital Issuance

Zamanat Fund CEIC Limited is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority as an Exempt Fund and classified as a Credit Fund. It is managed by Truleum Venture Partners Limited, which holds responsibility for all regulated fund-management activities. Apex Group serves as fund administrator, supplying institutional administration and operational controls from launch.

Fund interests will be issued as ZM1 Investment Tokens on ZIGChain inside a regulated, whitelisted environment. The structure adds a blockchain-native ownership and settlement layer while preserving the underlying private-credit investment profile. Participation is restricted to investors who qualify as Professional Clients under DFSA rules. The arrangement marks the first live demonstration of regulated fund tokenization on ZIGChain focused on GCC private credit.

As sponsor, Zamanat contributes regional private-credit knowledge, investment structuring and institutional partnership capabilities. The firm itself is backed by Disrupt.com, a MENA-based, operator-led AI-native venture builder that serves as lead investor.

Regional Economic Context

Capital raised by the fund will be allocated to private-credit opportunities supporting established local companies whose financing requirements remain unmet by traditional channels. The approach aligns with stated national priorities, including Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE Centennial 2071, both of which seek greater SME participation and broader private-sector financing options.

Tokenization is presented as a means of expanding infrastructure around private-market assets that have historically been difficult for institutional and qualifying professional investors to access, without altering the credit characteristics of the underlying exposures.

Broader Platform Ambition

Zamanat describes the fund as evidence of its regulated fund-tokenization, digital ownership and partner-orchestration capabilities. The company is simultaneously advancing a separate pipeline of products across private credit, receivables, real estate and additional asset classes under its wider effort to develop a market for Digital Shariah Assets.

Global Islamic finance assets are projected to reach $9.7 trillion by 2029. Demand for digital and Shariah-aligned instruments is reported to be outpacing the institutional infrastructure that connects those assets with international capital. Zamanat’s model combines investment structuring, Shariah expertise, regulated distribution routes and digital channels to place real-world assets into both traditional and tokenized formats.

The company notes that the current fund itself is not an Islamic Fund and is not marketed as Shariah-compliant; any references to Shariah pertain to the broader platform rather than to this vehicle.

Communications relating to the fund have been approved by Truleum Venture Partners Limited in the DIFC. The announcement is informational only and does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe. Interests and tokens are available solely to Professional Clients through the fund manager and formal offering documentation, and no transactions will occur in onshore UAE outside the DIFC.