Viaka #5: Building a halal BNPL for Uzbekistan and beyond
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Hi everyone, this is Hani. This week, we’re shining the spotlight on Iman Invest, one of Viaka’s VC partners in MENA. Iman Invest was founded by Mark Zubov and Rustam A. Rahmatov, investment professionals with global experience.
Iman Invest Quick Stats
Founded: 2020
HQ: UAE/Uzbekistan
Founder: Mark Zubov and Rustam A. Rahmatov
Raison d’être: Muslims make up roughly one-fifth of the world’s population and live predominantly in emerging and frontier markets. Yet, an estimated 700m young and digitally connected Muslims don’t use basic banking products because banks and traditional fintechs don’t cater to their religious needs. Rustam A. Rahmatov and I founded IMAN Invest with the mission to democratize access to fair and transparent financial products in line with customers’ beliefs first in Uzbekistan and hopefully one day all across the globe.
Ask: Introductions to investors that could be interested in Islamic fintech or emerging markets fintech more broadly
I got the chance to chat with Mark about Iman’s story, and their goals for the future. Here are some of the insights from our chat.
What is Iman Invest and how/why did it come to life?
Muslims make up roughly one-fifth of the world’s population and live predominantly in emerging and frontier markets. Yet, an estimated 700m young and digitally connected Muslims don’t use basic banking products because banks and traditional fintechs don’t cater to their religious needs. We founded IMAN with the mission to democratize access to fair and transparent financial products in line with customers’ beliefs first. Today we operate in Uzbekistan where we offer a halal BNPL solution that allows customers to pay for purchases and invest in a Shariah compliant way.
What is your personal story and relation to the problem (alongside your founders)
Rustam and I first met when we were working for a Central Asia-focused investment firm. When looking at investment opportunities in the consumer finance space, we noticed how low the credit penetration rate was in Uzbekistan – only 6 per cent of the population ever borrowed from banks or invested in deposits. One of the main reasons behind that was the lack of Islamic financial products in a market where 90 per cent of the population are Muslim. Furthermore, as a devout Muslim, Rustam was one of the people who was not a part of the financial ecosystem due to the lack of Islamic products. As we had some experience working with fintech lenders in other both developed and emerging markets, we decided to try to build a Klarna for the Muslim World.
What market are you attacking? Are you adding on or trying to replace current offerings?
We are attacking the broad consumer finance market of Uzbekistan first followed by Pakistan and broader MENA/SEA. On the BNPL side, we are of the very few Halal BNPLs as we use a Murabaha (cost-plus) financing structure and do not charge late fees unlike other big players. On the investment side, we are quite a unique product as we allow investors to generate attractive halal yield from funding consumers’ purchases. The vision is to build upon these services to create the first Islamic super-app.
What are you looking for from the Viaka community?
We are interested in introductions to investors that could be interested in Islamic fintech or emerging markets fintech more broadly, as well as to companies we could partner with as we enter new markets, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Southeast Asia, and broader MENA.
Where do you hope that will take you?
We will be able to enable critical financial services in the most underserved markets.
Promising Opportunities from Our MENA Partners
Below are a list of opportunities curated from the Viaka’s MENA partners.
For Investors
Huupe, the world's first smart basketball hoop, is raising a seed round and connecting with SportTech and Entertainment investors.
Iman Invest is closing a $3m post-seed round to build out their halal BNPL solution similar to Affirm/Klarna, that enables customers to invest and get funding ethically according to their belief
Agel is closing a seed round of $1m to provide Islamic financing options to Egyptian MSMEs in industries previously overlooked by traditional financial institutions.
Startup Falcon is looking to connect with angels and early stage VCs in North America for “user research” conversations to help guide the product development of their startup valuation tool
Desert Farms is raising $3m to start large-scale production, and currently connecting with early-stage investors in FoodTech
For Advisors
Ecomz, a digital platform that enables companies and individuals to create their customized e-commerce websites, is looking for a technical advisor familiar with similar platforms (Shopify, Wordpress, GoDaddy, etc). This opportunity can be compensated.
Klangoo, an AI-startup providing Natural Language Processing (NLP) to media and software companies, is looking for an advisor familiar with NLP use cases, and that can explore market fits with Financial Services and Health Care. This opportunity can be compensated.
Band Industries, an AI-powered music tuner and education app, is looking for someone with experience building a SaaS business, preferably a previous founder with digital marketing and go-to-market expertise and a strategist. This opportunity can be compensated.
Desert Farms is also looking for a senior advisor with D2C startup experience, preferably in the food & beverage space, and with knowledge of the FDA approval process. This opportunity can be compensated.
SubsBase is looking for a senior advisor with early-stage startup experience, particularly in leveraging data analytics to optimize the performance of an Enterprise SaaS business. This opportunity can be compensated.
Agel is looking for a senior advisor with FinTech Experience in MENA, and a knowledge of Islamic financing in particular. This opportunity can be compensated.
For Founders
Plus.vc invests in early-stage founders (up to Series A) that have a MENA background or connection, but are founding their companies outside of MENA.
If you would like to get involved with any of the opportunities above, please fill out the form below and indicate what opportunity you are interested in in the “Reason for Joining” section.
Exciting Announcements From Our Network
Below are a list of updates, wins, and asks emanating from members of the Viaka Network in the “West.”
Candoor, an early stage startup democratizing access to transformative careers in the U.S., landed a commitment to partner with an IT academy (55k students in their program) at a top 15 cloud provider! 💪
Empire, an independent label, born and grown out of the Bay Area, and is now the largest independent record label in the U.S., with a significant global presence, is hiring for an Operations Coordinator focusing on the WANA+ team. For more information, see the full job description here, or reach out to Jobs@empiredistribution.com 🎧
If you’re a member of our Network and would like to share your own update next week, email info.viaka@gmail.com.
That’s it for this week. Thank you!
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