Comera Financial Holdings, Part of Abu Dhabi’s Royal Group, and SC Ventures Announce Strategic Collaboration to Explore Innovation in SME and Beyond

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 23, 2025--

Comera Financial Holdings, part of Abu Dhabi’s Royal Group, and SC Ventures signed an MoU announcing a strategic collaboration to jointly explore new opportunities designed to strengthen the SME segment. The initiative reflects a shared vision to advance technology-driven financial solutions that align with the UAE’s economic priorities and support sustainable development across key sectors.

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Through this collaboration, Comera Financial Holdings and SCV have outlined several areas where their combined expertise can create significant value for businesses. A major focus will be on financial solutions tailored for corporates with extensive SME networks. These may include innovations in Supply Chain Finance, working capital optimisation, and sector-specific financing frameworks. By combining Comera’s expanding fintech platforms with SC Ventures’ expertise in venture-building and credit intelligence, both organisations aim to deliver solutions that strengthen business resilience and accelerate market competitiveness.

The organisations will also explore broader strategic partnership opportunities, including potential investment, co-creation of new financial models, and deeper coordination across select business initiatives. This approach is intended to drive innovation, encourage aligned growth, and support the delivery of comprehensive financial solutions at scale.

Akhtar Saeed Hashmi, Managing Director & Group CEO of Comera Financial Holdings, stated: “This collaboration marks an important step in our mission to build forward-looking financial infrastructure for the UAE. By working with SC Ventures, we aim to introduce innovative, digitally powered financing models that support the growth ambitions of SMEs and large corporates alike.”

Alex Manson, CEO of Standard Chartered Ventures, commented: “At SC Ventures we build businesses that solve real problems. Partnering with Comera allows us to co-create digital infrastructure that gives SMEs the tools, insights and access they need to thrive in an innovation-led economy.”

Comera Financial Holdings and SC Ventures will continue evaluating the identified opportunities with the goal of establishing a long-term collaboration. Further updates will be shared as progress develops.

About SC Ventures

SC Ventures builds and invests in breakthrough ventures in and beyond banking. SC Ventures by Standard Chartered provides a platform for organisations to collaborate and co-create fintech ecosystems to reimagine the future of finance.

For more information, please visit www.scventures.io and follow SC Ventures on LinkedIn.

About Comera Financial Holdings

Comera Financial Holdings, part of Abu Dhabi’s Royal Group, is a diversified fintech and financial services group offering integrated solutions across payments, lending, supply chain finance, and digital financial infrastructure, enabling seamless, compliant, and scalable financial experiences for consumers, SMEs, and corporates across the UAE and beyond.

*Source: AETOSWire

Akhtar Saeed Hashmi, Managing Director & Group CEO of Comera Financial Holdings, and Alex Manson, CEO of Standard Chartered Ventures, sign an MoU announcing a strategic collaboration. (Photo: AETOSWire)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has privately discussed the possibility of firing Attorney General Pam Bondi and replacing her with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday.

In those conversations, Trump has discussed his ongoing frustration with Bondi over her handing of the Jeffrey Epstein files and hurdles the Justice Department has encountered in investigations into Trump’s perceived enemies, the people said. The Republican president has mentioned other candidates but has raised Zeldin’s name as recently as this week, the people said.

The people were not authorized to publicly discuss the private conversations and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

No decision has been announced, and Trump has been known to change his mind on personnel decisions.

"Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job,” Trump said in a statement produced by the White House.

Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, has been publicly and privately praised by Trump, who at an event in February described him as “our secret weapon.”

Bondi, a former state attorney general in Florida and a Trump loyalist who was part of his legal team during his first impeachment case, has been in her position for more than a year. She came into office pledging that she would not play politics with the Justice Department, but she quickly started investigations of Trump foes, sparking an outcry that the law enforcement agency was being wielded as a tool of revenge to advance the president’s political and personal agenda.

She has also endured months of scrutiny over the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files that made her the target of angry conservatives even with her close relationship with Trump.

Under Bondi’s leadership, the department opened investigations into a string of Trump foes, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan.

The high-profile prosecutions of Comey and James were quickly thrown out by a judge who ruled that the prosecutor who brought the cases was illegally appointed. Other politically charged investigations have either been rejected by grand juries or failed to result in criminal charges.

Attorney General Pam Bondi listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump walks from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)