Laser Digital, the digital assets subsidiary of Japanese financial group Nomura, is expanding its institutional tokenization strategy into Saudi Arabia’s private credit market. The company has partnered with ZIG Finance to launch the zEMS Vault, an onchain investment vehicle targeting $100 million in capital for financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Announced on November 11, the vault will give eligible institutional investors exposure to a diversified portfolio of Saudi SME loans. The product runs on BNB Chain and combines traditional lending infrastructure with blockchain-based investment administration, stablecoin subscriptions and redemptions, and a Sharia advisory framework.
The $100 million figure is a fundraising target, not capital already raised or assets currently deployed. The launch nevertheless represents the first product under a broader strategic partnership between Laser Digital and ZIG Finance, which aims to extend institutional private credit into emerging markets.
The investment structure brings together several companies, each responsible for a different part of the lending and tokenization process.
Beehive provides the lending infrastructure through which the underlying SME loans are originated. Investors gain exposure to a diversified pool of these loans rather than lending directly to individual businesses.
ZIG Finance is responsible for the investment product and its regional credit strategy. Laser Digital will act as a risk framework advisor, helping establish the vault’s risk governance structure and providing tokenization advisory.
KAIO handles tokenization and administration throughout the vault’s lifecycle on BNB Chain. Eligible institutional investors can subscribe to and redeem their positions using stablecoins, while know-your-customer (KYC) checks are applied both when entering and exiting the investment.
Zamanat provides the structuring and Sharia advisory component. This is particularly relevant in the Gulf market, where investment products designed around Islamic finance principles can broaden their appeal to institutions and investors seeking Sharia-compliant exposure.
The arrangement illustrates how tokenized private credit requires more than a blockchain and a lending protocol. Loan origination, underwriting, investment structuring, compliance, custody and administration remain essential components of the product.
The zEMS Vault builds on an existing relationship between Laser Digital and ZIGChain, the blockchain ecosystem associated with ZIG Finance.
In August 2026, Laser Digital made a strategic investment in ZIGChain and agreed to support the development of institutional-grade onchain investment products. The partnership initially targeted at least $100 million in total value locked across a pipeline of vaults covering private credit, SME financing, invoice financing and stablecoin infrastructure.
The new Saudi product is the first concrete launch under that agreement. The partners now intend to apply the same structure to other emerging markets and additional credit strategies.
For Laser Digital, the initiative expands a portfolio that already includes tokenized investment products. The firm launched a tokenized Bitcoin Diversified Yield Fund through KAIO in January. It also received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in May to establish a national trust bank, subject to completing pre-opening requirements.
The strategy reflects a broader shift among traditional financial groups: rather than treating blockchain as a separate investment market, they are exploring how tokenization can distribute conventional financial products through digital infrastructure.
Small businesses are an important part of Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification strategy, but SME lending presents challenges for conventional financial institutions. Smaller borrowers can have limited collateral, shorter operating histories and higher underwriting costs relative to the size of individual loans.
Private credit funds can address some of these financing gaps by pooling capital and extending loans outside traditional bank channels. Tokenization potentially makes these investments easier to distribute and administer, while giving institutional investors access to credit opportunities that might otherwise require specialized regional relationships.
However, placing loan exposure on a blockchain does not change the underlying economics. Returns still depend on borrowers making repayments. Diversification can reduce concentration risk, but it cannot eliminate defaults, delayed payments or losses across the portfolio.
The partners have not publicly disclosed the vault’s detailed underwriting criteria, expected yield, loan maturities, collateral requirements or redemption limits. These details will be important in assessing the actual risk profile of the investment.
The use of stablecoins for subscriptions and redemptions offers a blockchain-native alternative to traditional fund transfers. But it should not be confused with guaranteed instant liquidity.
The underlying SME loans are private credit instruments, not assets that can necessarily be sold immediately at their stated value. If investors request withdrawals during a period of financial stress, the vault may face a mismatch between redemption demand and the timing of loan repayments.
The $100 million fundraising target will therefore be only one measure of success. Equally important will be the quality of the loan portfolio, transparency of risk reporting and the vault’s ability to manage liquidity through different market conditions.
For BNB Chain, the launch adds another institutional real-world asset use case. For Laser Digital and ZIG Finance, it is an early test of whether a repeatable model combining regional lending, institutional risk governance and onchain distribution can attract substantial capital beyond the Gulf.