Zamanat has officially launched Zamanat Fund CEIC Limited, a DIFC-domiciled tokenized private credit fund with a target size of up to $100 million. According to reports from Chainwire and Finbold, the Fund represents Zamanat's first live proof point for regulated fund tokenization on ZIGChain, specifically focused on GCC private credit. The launch comes amid a broader institutional tokenization trend in the region, with GCC sovereign wealth funds collectively managing approximately $5 trillion in assets and deploying a record $119 billion in 2025. As reported by Chainwire and Finbold, the Fund operates as a DFSA-regulated closed-ended fund registered as an Exempt Fund and classified as a Credit Fund, managed by Truleum Venture Partners Limited and administered by Apex Group. Fund interests are issued as ZM1 Investment Tokens on ZIGChain within a regulated, whitelisted environment, providing professional investors with regulated access to Shariah-aligned digital assets.
The Fund targets the GCC's estimated $250 billion SME financing gap, with only 11 percent of SMEs across the region having access to credit. As reported by Chainwire and Finbold, in the UAE, SMEs generate more than half of GDP and employ the majority of the private-sector workforce, yet receive less than 10 percent of total bank lending. The Fund will invest in private credit across the region, directing capital towards strong homegrown companies whose financing needs are not fully met through traditional lending channels. The strategy supports national ambitions to expand SME participation, private-sector growth, and access to alternative financing, including priorities set out under Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and the UAE Centennial 2071. With Zamanat Fund CEIC Limited's launch, Zamanat intends to let institutional users connect their capital to the established GCC firms looking for alternative growth financing sources.
According to Chainwire and Finbold reports, tokenization expands the infrastructure around traditionally hard-to-access private-market assets without changing the underlying investment or credit profile. The Fund combines a regional private credit strategy, DIFC fund structure, institutional administration and digital issuance on ZIGChain. The ZM1 Investment Token structure provides a blockchain-native ownership and settlement layer within the Fund's regulated framework. The Fund is available only to Professional Clients who meet DFSA eligibility requirements, with participation made through the Fund Manager and final offering documents. The tokenization replaces the paper certificate of fund ownership with an entry on a digital ledger, representing a supply-side change for institutional fund issuance rather than democratized retail access. Traditional private credit funds often suffer from illiquidity and limited access, restricting participation to institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals. Tokenization allows for fractional ownership, potentially broadening the investor base and diversifying the risk profile for participants.
As reported by Chainwire and Finbold, Apex Group acts as Fund Administrator, providing institutional fund administration and controls from the outset. Peter Hughes, Founder & CEO of Apex Group, stated that Zamanat is supporting the creation of a new category in Digital Assets and that bringing institutional structure and digital distribution together within a DFSA-regulated framework sets the standard for how this market should be built. Zamanat is backed by Disrupt.com, a MENA-based, operator-led AI-native venture builder and lead investor in the business. The company continues building the global market for Digital Shariah Assets, with global Islamic finance assets projected to reach $9.7 trillion by 2029 according to LSEG and ICD data. The launch is being billed as ZIGChain's first live regulated fund issuance, serving as evidence that the ecosystem's distribution infrastructure works on a regulatory stage. The actual pace of GCC institutional tokenization adoption tracks the same "mass preparation" pattern documented globally, with regulatory frameworks in DIFC and ADGM having matured meaningfully, though the volume of GCC institutional capital actually deployed remains a small fraction of the region's total addressable allocation capacity.
