Nomura’s digital assets arm is making another push into private credit, this time with a Saudi small business focus. Laser Digital and ZIG Finance have introduced the zEMS Vault, an onchain vehicle that aims to raise $100 million. It runs on BNB Chain, and eligible investors use stablecoins to subscribe and redeem.
What the vault does
The product gives approved institutional investors exposure to a pool of loans made to Saudi small and medium-sized enterprises. Beehive, a lending platform regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, originates the credit. Instead of holding a stack of loan documents, investors hold a token that represents a share of the pool.
Laser Digital provides the risk rules and serves as tokenization adviser. KAIO handles the onchain administration and tokenization on BNB Chain. Zamanat takes care of structuring and Sharia advisory, a detail that matters for Gulf investors. Subscriptions and redemptions settle in stablecoins, though both steps require know-your-customer checks. So this is not an open DeFi pool.
Why Saudi SMEs matter
Saudi small businesses are not a usual line item in global institutional portfolios. Reaching them through a tokenized wrapper could lower some operational barriers, perhaps enough to draw capital that would otherwise stay on the sidelines. The Sharia advisory layer may also widen the investor base. A product built with Islamic finance principles in mind can appeal to Gulf capital that might skip a conventional credit fund.
There are limits. SME lending carries more credit risk than lending to large companies. A token wrapper does not change who repays the loan. Liquidity is another question. Stablecoin redemptions may sound quick, but the underlying loans are not instant. How the vault handles withdrawal demand during stress will matter.
The partnership and next steps
The zEMS Vault comes from a strategic tie-up between Laser Digital and ZIG Finance and its ZIGChain network, formed on August 5, 2026. Laser Digital invested about $8 million into ZIGChain at the time. The partners said they wanted to drive at least $100 million in total value locked across vaults focused on SME financing and private credit in Gulf Cooperation Council countries and other emerging markets. This first vault now targets that full amount.
ZIG Markets, part of the group, says it has originated more than $50 million in loans with no defaults. The partners plan to replicate the model in other markets and credit strategies. Laser Digital has also been building a regulated digital assets business under Nomura. It secured conditional national trust bank approval in the US by May 2026.
The immediate signal is the raise. Hitting $100 million would show real institutional appetite for Gulf SME credit onchain. Missing it would raise questions about demand, execution, and how quickly tokenized private credit can move beyond pilot deals.
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