Baghdadi Capital, a family fund led by former Barclays global head of trade and working capital Baihas Baghdadi, has established a US-focused receivables finance business.

Higher Bridge Capital (HBC), a Delaware-registered corporation with offices in New York, aims to support the working capital finance needs of US mid-market corporates and SMEs, complementing the Europe market focus of Trade & Working Capital (TWC), a non-bank financial institution set up by Baghdadi in 2019.

Javier Ortega (pictured), who joined TWC as managing director for the Americas earlier this year after leaving his role of head of trade and working capital Americas at Barclays, is taking on the managing director position at HBC.

“With Ricardo Zion as TWC’s managing director covering the European market and Javier Ortega as HBC’s managing director covering the US market, Baghdadi Capital will become over the next few years a powerhouse in the transatlantic receivables finance business, with capabilities to cover local as well cross-border trade finance flows,” Baghdadi tells GTR.

He adds that over the past four years, TWC has provided around €600mn in financing to SMEs in Southern Europe, purchasing 5,000 invoices and originating a gross income in the region of €20mn.

“My personal ambition in adding the US market is to be able to finance €1bn of receivables every year, which translates into a stable book of €300mn by 2025,” says Baghdadi. “We are already halfway there, and I am very confident that with the team we have onboarded, the support of our institutional funding investors and the right focus, we will make it.”