Lending
The distributor wants paying in 30 days and the client pays after commissioning. Four ways a Dubai IT company can fund hardware for a client project, and what stops a lender.
The client wants the network live in eight weeks. The distributor wants paying for the switches and servers in 30 days, and the client will pay you once it is commissioned.
A Dubai IT company can finance hardware for a client project in four main ways. A lender can pay your distributor directly and you repay when the client pays, which is supplier finance. You can borrow against the client's purchase order. You can take a short business loan that covers the hardware along with everything else. Or you can change how you bill, so the client pays for the equipment before the project finishes. This guide takes each in turn, and what stops a lender funding it.
Because it is the biggest single payment, and it goes out first.
Labour spreads across the project. Hardware lands in one invoice from the distributor, often before a single cable is run. Projects are getting bigger too. Gartner expects spending on data centre systems in MENA to grow 37.3% in 2026 (opens in a new tab), within a regional IT market of $169 billion. Bigger projects mean bigger hardware bills paid ahead of the client.
And the client is rarely quick. Across the UAE, credit sales make up 47% of B2B transactions and around two in five B2B invoices are paid late (opens in a new tab), according to Atradius. You carry the hardware cost for the whole of that wait.
If you import the equipment yourself rather than buying from a local distributor, the cash goes out even earlier. The overseas supplier usually wants paying before it ships, and UAE customs duty of 5% of the CIF value (opens in a new tab) is due when it lands.
Often, if you ask before the contract is signed.
Many integrators invoice the whole project at commissioning or handover because that is how the first contract was written, and every contract since has copied it. Splitting the invoice changes the cash picture. Bill the hardware on delivery to site and the services on commissioning, and the largest cost gets paid weeks earlier. Some clients will also pay a deposit against the equipment order.
Not every client will agree. Government and large enterprise buyers work to their own procurement terms. But it costs nothing to propose, and every week you pull the hardware payment forward is a week you are not financing it.
A lender pays your distributor on your behalf, and you repay the lender when your client pays you.
For the distributor, it is a normal on-time payment. For you, it turns a 30-day supplier bill into a debt that runs until the client pays. The lender looks at the order behind it: who the client is, and whether you have bought from this distributor and delivered similar projects before. It works best with a distributor you already use regularly.
It also helps with the other hardware problem, the distributor's credit limit. Paying the distributor on time brings your balance down and frees the limit for the next project. If the order is unusually large, ask your distributor for a project-specific credit extension backed by the signed LPO. Some will agree when they can see the end client.
Funding raised against the client's purchase order itself, before you have delivered anything.
It suits an order that is large relative to your usual size, from a client a lender recognises. The lender is effectively backing the client's promise to pay. Our guide to purchase order finance in the UAE (opens in a new tab) covers what a lender needs to see before it funds an order you cannot yet pay for.
When hardware is only one of several costs the project creates.
Most large IT projects need the hardware and the engineers' salaries paid long before the client pays. Salaries are due on the first of each month, and since 1 June 2026 there is no 15-day grace period (opens in a new tab). A business loan sized to the whole project covers all of it on one repayment schedule, which is why, in our experience, it is how most integrators fund a big job. Read how to borrow for an IT project you have won (opens in a new tab) for how to size it and what lenders check.
Some hardware vendors also run their own finance programmes for end customers. If your client finances the equipment through one of those, you may get paid for the hardware upfront. It is worth asking the vendor's channel team what they offer on a large order.
Most often it is something about the order itself. The four that come up most:
Retention is worth planning for as well. On fit-out-linked work, UAE contracts typically hold back 10% (opens in a new tab), half of it until about a year after handover. Do not plan to clear a hardware debt out of money that arrives that late.
For hardware finance, the order paperwork matters as much as the company paperwork:
GrowthIQ is not a capital provider. The platform helps you find the lenders you are most likely to qualify with.
One application is assessed against the credit policies of multiple lenders, matched to the product that fits the gap, and sent only to lenders whose criteria you plausibly meet. Complete applications typically take two to three weeks end to end. There is no retainer and no upfront advisory fee, and a success fee applies only if financing is disbursed.
For the full picture across every stage of a project, see our overview of financing for IT companies in the UAE (opens in a new tab). When you are ready, check your eligibility (opens in a new tab) or see how GiQ Match (opens in a new tab) works.
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