Investment advisors used to be the preserve of the well-off. If you had a few hundred thousand dollars, you’d have a series of meetings with wealth managers in fancy suits, who’d charge you an exorbitant fee to help you put your money in the right place.
Those days are now (thankfully) largely in the past, as advances in technology have opened up investment advice to the masses. A new class of robo-advisers, led by companies like Betterment and Wealthfront, can provide sound investment advice for a fraction of the cost of their human counterparts, making it affordable enough for those with as little as US$100 to invest.
Junaid Wahedna has now taken the robo-investment concept a step further, making it available for those looking for Sharia-compliant investment options.
The lack of availability of Islamic investment options for non-high net worth Muslim investors troubled Mr Wahedna. Seeing an opportunity, he quit his job on Wall Street, and after a few long and tiring years, opened one of the world’s first sharia-compliant robo-advisers.
Wahed Invest, the New York-headquartered digitally automated investment adviser, charges far lower fees than those charged by a conventional wealth manager, enabling people with limited savings to build a sophisticated sharia-compliant investment portfolio.
"I asked myself how do we solve this problem, as 99 per cent of the Muslim population perhaps is not rich, how do they invest their money?" Mr Wahedna tells The National.
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“The products that were out there, even for the high net worth [individuals] they were very expensive and inefficient. And only because they were Halal, institutions were charging a premium [for them]. We said there shouldn’t be a cost for being a Muslim. There shouldn’t be a cost for investing ethically, so went ahead and built the venture on that basis.”
Mr Wahedna, from India, grew up in Dubai, going to school and university in the emirate. He went on to get his masters degree in industrial engineering and operations research from Columbia University in New York. After graduating he joined boutique merchant bank M Capital Group, where he had interned during his studies.
“It was a good stepping stone to show you what it is like competing in the most mature financial market in the world, the best quality of work, the quality of structured products, which was all invaluable,” he says of his stint at Wall Street. “Getting that exposure and confidence was helpful.”
His year at the bank helped him recognise that the Islamic finance sector was perhaps decades behind the conventional finance world in terms of its product offerings. As a practising Muslim from a religious family, his interest in Islamic finance came naturally. He soon concluded that the smarter use of technology was the way forward for Sharia-compliant investing.
Particularly eye-catching was the rise of robo-advisers, which gauge investors’ investment goals and risk appetites via online questionnaires, and subsequently offer advice at a fraction of the price of traditional wealth managers. Betterment, one of the best known of the new generation of robo-advisors, has accrued over $10 billion worth of assets under management in the US since its launch in 2008.
According to an AT-Kearney 2015 report, global assets under management by robo-advisors could rise by 68 per cent annually to $2.2 trillion by 2020, with the sector set to transform the investment management business and wider banking industry.
After saying goodbye to his job in Wall Street, Mr Wahedna took a leap of faith and started building his own robo-adviser, focused on Sharia-compliant investments, investing $50,000 worth of his savings in the project. He was alone in generating the idea, and started the process of getting a licence from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US on a “very, very tight budget”, he says.
“When I took the big leap, I told myself I can make a product that really is for the community,” he says. “From the idea stage to a workable prototype, it took more than a year. It was full time work. No sleep, and that hard work wasn’t paying anything at that stage.”
“It was barebones and I had no one to do the work for me. I had to call the SEC, and I had to call the stock brokers [in order to] understand everything including regulations.”
But as soon as the structure was ready and everything was put on paper, his luck changed. Three angel investors came on board to help develop the technology and compliance aspect of the project.
These investors - Laurent Nordin, a former director at Mckinsey, Nasr-Eddine Benaissa a financial services veteran who is currently the chief investment officer at Mawarid Investments, and Khalid Al Jassim, an experienced investment banker who is now a managing partner at Dubai-based Afkar Holdings – all sit on Wahed Invest's board today.
“I set up and registered with SEC in 2015 with no money, nothing but an idea and paperwork. Then the angel investors came in in 2016 and gave me about $1 million saying, ‘Do it professionally.’ In the first quarter of 2017 we went out and got $5m,” Mr Wahedna recalls.
The company became such a “hot product” that investors started approaching Wahed to be part of the story.
“We had people coming to us; we needed only $4m but we ended up raising $6m to $7m because we had so many good strategic investors. We got Cue Ball Capital from the US and Beco [Capital] from the UAE,” he adds.
Being Sharia-compliant, Mr Wahedna says, Wahed has something that others in the segment can’t offer. There are two billion Muslims across the globe and the potential of growth is unbelievable.
The growth Wahed has so far achieved is impressive in its own right. The platform, which went live in the US in mid-2017, signed up 1,000 wealth management clients in its first three months. Its total membership has now grown to a “few thousand,” says Mr Wahedna, without divulging the exact number.
Currently, all of Wahed’s clients are from the US and Mr Wahedna says it plans to start accepting international customers, possibly, within this year.
“The sky is the limit”, he says of the company’s prospects. “Imagine how many Muslims there are outside of US and prospect of that is what is exciting everyone.”
“We can accept clients from 150 countries infrastructure wise, but we don’t want to open the floodgates. We want to do it properly,” he says. “We want to make sure we understand the consumer and we want to make sure our product is perfect for the market and then we will go with the big bang.”
The company has 50 full-time employees and it has offices in New York, London, Dubai and Mumbai.
It is currently focusing on Middle East and North African markets through its Dubai hub. Looking forward, the company sees a lot of potential in India, having seen strong demand for Islamic investing in the country from its pre-registered clients.
Wahed is still evaluating options in the country, with no firm entry plans at the moment. Nigeria, home to the world’s fifth-largest Muslim population, is also on the company’s radar in the longer term.
The company owes it success, Mr Wahedna says, to a great team of highly qualified professionals.
“We have some incredibly talented people. It is like best of the best coming together ….. it is nice to have all that talent together for an Islamic finance platform. All of these guys have joined us because the genuinely believe in what they are doing and what we [as Wahed] are doing.”
Amir Farha, the co-founder and managing partner at Beco Capital, agrees.
“What we like about [the company] is that the product is very good, the team is very good and given the fact that they are Sharia-compliant - a white space not addressed by the robo-advisers,” he says.
The fact that Wahed has the potential to be a global institution is an added appeal for the venture capital firm. “Robo-advisory will remain [the key] pillar but Wahed can essentially build itself into an Islamic bank over time, he notes.
“It’s really worth funding and supporting and it has the potential of changing the global landscape,” he says, adding the Beco Capital will be happy to participate in the next funding round of Wahed as and when it happens.
Oppenheimer
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Lewis Hamilton in 2018
Australia 2nd; Bahrain 3rd; China 4th; Azerbaijan 1st; Spain 1st; Monaco 3rd; Canada 5th; France 1st; Austria DNF; Britain 2nd; Germany 1st; Hungary 1st; Belgium 2nd; Italy 1st; Singapore 1st; Russia 1st; Japan 1st; United States 3rd; Mexico 4th
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
ANATOMY%20OF%20A%20FALL
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Brief scores:
Day 2
England: 277 & 19-0
West Indies: 154
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The%C2%A0specs%20
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E6-cylinder%2C%204.8-litre%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E5-speed%20automatic%20and%20manual%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E280%20brake%20horsepower%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E451Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh153%2C00%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Villains
Queens of the Stone Age
Matador
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Company%20Profile
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Tips for taking the metro
- set out well ahead of time
- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines
- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on
- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers
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