Welcome to the new Beehive blog where we will post up the latest developments and news from Beehive and the peer-to-peer lending industry as well as market trends, best practice and expert advice from our team and guest bloggers. In the coming months we will be using this space to introduce you to Beehive and familiarise you with the concept of Peer to peer financing. We are very excited about the future as Beehive just keeps growing more and more.
Based in Dubai and serving the UAE, Beehive is the UAE’s first peer-to-peer lending platform. Beehive directly connects established, creditworthy businesses with smart investors to build mutually beneficial partnerships for growth. Our platform applies the innovative technology of crowdfunding to eliminate the cost and complexity of conventional finance, meaning SMEs get faster access to lower cost finance and investors get better returns and diversified risk. It’s just smarter finance.
The 300,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for about 60 per cent of the UAE’s non-oil economy and 90 per cent of total businesses . SMEs are critical to employment creation and economic growth, yet they account for only 3-4% of bank lending and bank loan rejection rates for SMEs are between 50-70 per cent. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates the current SME funding gap in the MENA region to be at least USD$260 billion. This considerable gap between the demand and supply of capital is driving a critical need for alternative finance solutions to fuel growth in this critically underserved sector of the economy.
