News and updates from the Barakah Insider editorial team.
Islamic Fintech
Islamic digital bank Fasset has raised $51 million in a Series B round to expand its stablecoin-based banking platform across emerging markets, with backing from Japan's SBI Group, Bahrain-headquartered Investcorp, and Turkish asset manager Arz Portföy. Founded in 2019 and based in Los Angeles, Fasset is an Islamic
Technology
A new UK charity, Shared Futures Foundation, has launched with a straightforward argument: the reason most people don't participate more ethically in the economy isn't apathy, it's that the systems around them were never designed to make it easy. Founded by Adil Abbuthalha, an
Apps
A father-and-son team behind Australia's largest Sharia-compliant financial group is now taking aim at a different kind of gap in the market: a unified digital platform for the global Muslim community. Hakan Ozyon, who built Melbourne-based Hejaz Financial Services, has launched Wahda alongside his son Ali, describing it
Islamic Fintech
Wahed, the global Islamic fintech company, has launched the first Shariah-compliant real estate fund in the United States, open to non-accredited investors.
Apps
Mihrab is a free Islamic app that covers salah times, Quran, hadith, dhikr, fasting tracking, and a few other essential features.
Dawah
KIM Vakfı (Center for Cross Cultural Communication), a Türkiye-based non-profit organization, has launched its global fundraising campaign on LaunchGood. The organisation’s aim is countering Islamophobia and promoting intercultural understanding through educational outreach at Türkiye’s historic Islamic heritage sites. With Istanbul, currently the world’s most visited
Islamic Fintech
ZIGChain, the compliance-driven Layer-1 blockchain, has launched Nawa Finance, its first Shariah-certified yield platform—an institutional-grade attempt to bring transparency, real-world asset backing, and Islamic-finance principles into the often-opaque world of decentralised yield generation. For many users, yield opportunities are either speculative, opaque, or misaligned with their values. Nawa addresses
Islamic Finance
Riyadh- and Singapore-based web3 startup Takadao has raised a total of US$3.1 million following the close of its US$1.5 million seed round, as it launches The LifeCard, a community-owned prepaid crypto VISA card designed to bridge decentralized finance (DeFi) with everyday spending. The latest round drew
Africa
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Hormuud Salaam Foundation (HSF) have launched an 18‑month initiative designed to unlock youth employment and spark innovation in Somalia’s fast‑growing green and blue economy. Backed by Hormuud Telecom and Salaam Somali Bank with funding of USD 820,000, the
Startups
HASAN.VC marked a major milestone this week with its largest-ever Halal Startup Showcase, celebrating the graduation of Cohort 003 from its five-week accelerator program and officially launching its third venture fund. The full-day event, held at the Khazanah Auditorium at the Asia School of Business, brought together nearly 50
Events
The world’s leading trade fair for the food and beverage industry, Anuga, and the Islamic Chamber Halal Services (ICHS), the Halal arm of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Development (ICCD), have officially launched the 1st Anuga Halal Forum 2025, marking a milestone in global Halal industry collaboration and
Innovation & Technology
Omar M. Yaghi, a chemist born to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work in developing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a breakthrough molecular architecture with transformative applications. Yaghi shares the prize with Susumu Kitagawa of Japan and Richard Robson of Australia.