Eid Mubarak! Ramadan has come to an end, with Muslims around the world celebrating the arrival of Eid al-Fitr. We take the occasion to dig into the world of Islamic finance.
Islamic finance, or Sharia-compliant finance, follows principles spelt out in sharia, Islam’s body of religious law.
For instance, Sharia prohibits riba, or usury, defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although consensus is not unanimous) and investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles (e.g. pork or alcohol) is also haram ("sinful and prohibited").
Varying interpretations of the basic principles exist, and not all Muslims feel bound to (or are aware of) all the principles as they apply to finance. This helps explain why Islamic finance hasn’t come close to market saturation in any predominantly Muslim country. Still, according to S&P, the global Islamic finance industry is worth $2.2 trillion and is expected to expand by between 10% and 12% over the next 12 months.
From ethical banking to sharia-compliant investments and savings, profit and loss sharing mortgages and lending, even to the world of crypto, Defi and NFTs.
🛒 One-click checkout Bolt CEO says performances are strong, in wake of lawsuit- Last week Bloomberg reported Bolt was being sued by “its most prominent customer", Authentic Brands Group (ABG). ABG alleged that Bolt failed to deliver the technology that it promised and that it missed out on over $150 million in online sales during the company’s integration with fashion retailer Forever 21. ABG also claimed Bolt inflated its actual metrics to show traction to investors. Bolt's CEO replied that the company results speak for themselves: Bolt now has a total of 13.8 million total “shopper accounts,” a 131% year-over-year increase, and 836 total active merchant accounts across all product lines, representing a 192% YoY increase. - Techcrunch Three weeks ago rival startup Fast imploded after raising $125M in VC funding.
🔗 Hong Kong will explore digital currency: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) will study the feasibility of a digital e-Hong Kong dollar over the next 12 months. Users’ privacy, security and anti-money-laundering concerns will be key points in the study- South China Morning Post
🇫🇷 Health insurtech Alan raised a new €183M Series E at a €2.7B valuation led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The french insurtech wants to build a one-stop-shop medical super app.
🇨🇱 Chile-based Xepelin raised a $111M Series B to help Latam businesses get paid. Xepelin aims to bring B2B payments digital in Latam via a SaaS payments infrastructure that includes financial information in real-time, embedded financial services and data models, all to be a company’s “digital CFO” of sorts.
🇱🇹 Lithuanian fintechkevinraised a $65M Series A, led by Accel, to bring A2A payments to existing POS payment terminals.
🇮🇳 SMB neobank Open became India's latest fintech unicorn after raising a $50M Series D.
Other notable fintech deals from around the globe:
🇮🇹 BNPL startup Scalapay $27M investment from Poste Italiane, Italy’s largest service infrastructure network and one of the largest payment card issuers in Europe. This funding is an extension of Scalapay's $497M Series B.
🇵🇱Symmetrical.ai, a Warsaw, Poland- London, UK- and Barcelona, Spain-based global payroll company serving international companies, raised $18.5M in Series A funding.
🇳🇱 Blockchain tech provider Venly raised over €21 million in Series A funding, led by Courtside Ventures with participation also from Coinbase Ventures. The funding will be used to develop products for web3 access, with a close focus on gaming as well as eCommerce.
Join Saul Klein (LocalGlobe), Christoph Janz (Point Nine), and our CEO Yoram Wijngaarde (Dealroom.co) to discuss what it means to be a great investor in the entrepreneurial and exponential age.
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