Fintech startup Finstreet, backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed’s International Holding Co., wants Abu Dhabi to be the crossroads in the global rush into private capital, offering regulated guardrails in an increasingly crowded market that remains opaque.
An estimated $600 billion in private assets across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are seeking exits, Finstreet co-founder and CEO Sunidhi Pasan told Semafor in an interview. To tap into that dry powder, Finstreet is providing a regulated venue where private assets can be issued, held, settled, and traded more easily. Launched two years ago, the startup aims to provide long-term investors — sovereign wealth funds, large family offices, and institutional asset managers — a more transparent way to manage liquidity, adjust exposure, and redeploy capital without relying on one-off bilateral deals.
With a front row seat from its offices in Abu Dhabi’s financial hub ADGM, Pasan sees an opening: Finstreet — working with the likes of BlackRock and Franklin Templeton to develop products — can be a place where buyers and sellers transact, shifting Abu Dhabi from capital allocator to intermediary. Whether that vision materializes will depend on attracting trading volume, Pasan acknowledged, not infrastructure alone.