UK FinTech operator Maydan Capital unveiled an equity crowdfunding platform on Thursday offering tech-focused investors vetted, early stage, ethical and halal investment opportunities.
The company’s fundraising platform aims to help early-stage companies in their initial stage of growth combat common funding barriers by promoting their investment opportunities to family offices, institutional, international and traditional investment communities.
Maydan, a subsidiary of global financial investment platform Wahed, which offers ethical and halal investing to 200,000 global customers including residents in the US, UK and the UAE, expects the majority of its deals to occur in the technology sector, with issuers pursuing capital raises with targets between $100,000 and $10 million.
Safdar Alam, chief executive of Maydan, said despite surging growth in institutional flows in money markets and the debt capital markets over the past few decades, the benefits to investors and entrepreneurs have lagged behind.
“An ethical investor has very little access to supporting growth businesses that align with their values, especially opportunities that have been highly vetted to a professional degree,” Mr Alam said.
“Our platform allows capital groups around the world to exponentially increase their exposure to quality, ethical opportunities in the tech market.”
The $2.4 trillion Sharia-compliant finance industry, which bans interest payments and pure monetary speculation, is expected to register growth of 10 to 12 per cent this year and next, according to S&P Global Ratings.
The industry grew by 10.6 per cent in 2020 on the back of higher-than-expected sukuk issuance, the rating agency said, with growth of 17.3 per cent in 2019.
Investors increasingly want to park their money in companies that are not only competitive but also ethical, with those investing through the Maydan platform offered access to both capital and deal flow.
Junaid Wahedna, chief executives of Wahed, said Maydan’s new platform marks a step towards Wahed’s aim to build an Islamic marketplace that meets the growing demand for socially conscious investors.
“Their position in our group ensures that growth companies can access a world-class platform connected to a very significant pool of ethically-minded investors and networks.”
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
