What was announced
TeamSec secured a US$7.6 million strategic investment to accelerate the development of its securitisation platform for asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities. The investment was presented at Emirates NBD's headquarters in Dubai.
The round was led by Deniz Ventures, the venture arm of Emirates NBD Group, alongside Rasmal Ventures of Qatar. Both are institutional investors with a direct view of the market the platform is built for, which mattered more in this round than the size of the cheque.
With this investment, TeamSec will position itself as a leading fintech company in the MENA region.
Esad Erkam Köroğlu — Founder & CEO
What it funds
The capital goes into the platform: the data, underwriting, structuring and reporting infrastructure that a securitisation runs on. The regional argument is that structured finance in MENA is constrained less by appetite than by the absence of the operating layer underneath it — and that is the layer this round pays for.
What it changed
The investment also changed the board. Alexander Wiedmer, co-managing partner of Rasmal Ventures, and Neeraj Makin, formerly group head of strategy at Emirates NBD, both sit on it. Institutional investors who take a seat tend to ask harder questions than ones who do not, which is the point.