Kuala Lumpur- Fintech entrepreneur Umar Munshi has won the Royal Award For Islamic Finance (RAIF) Emerging Leader Award for his pioneering efforts in developing fintech for Islamic finance and the impressive development of his company Ethis, a pioneering Islamic fintech co-founded with Ronald Yusuf Wijaya in 2014. The award ceremony was graced by Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah binti Mohd Yunus, Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia and Datuk Seri Awang Adek Hussin, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia at the Global Islamic Finance Forum (GIFF) 2022 held in Kuala Lumpur.
This award recognizes young international talents who have made an outstanding contribution to promoting innovative ideas in Islamic finance. The winner was selected by an international selection panel consisting of recognized academics and industry practitioners.
“I am humbled by this award and hope it will propel ethi and Islamic fintech to greater heights. I was inspired by the principles and approach of Islamic finance when I discovered it in 2011 and since then I have made it my and our mission to bring innovative solutions from Islamic finance to benefit the world, said Umar.
“It is not easy to be a first mover. We have survived and thrived because of the investment and incredible support of our shareholders, 110 talents spread across 10 countries, our ever-growing community of crowdfunders from 84+ countries and of course our regulators. I am especially grateful for the wisdom and direction provided by our shareholders and board members who are from many countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, talented individuals who are past and present CEOs or senior management of reputable banks and investments. firms, Sharia and finance experts and business executives. Together we are building a capital market platform where companies, institutions and individuals from around the world can come together to invest in and raise funds directly from each other, based on Islamic principles to energize and stimulate the real economy, he added.
An entrepreneur for two decades, Umar co-founded Club Ethis in 2014, an Islamic private investment club that evolved into a Fintech firm a year later. Ethi gained early traction by matching individual investors from more than 84 countries to invest in affordable housing projects in Indonesia. Ethis, now based in Malaysia, has grown into a formidable group of fintech investment and crowdfunding platforms with licenses in Malaysia, Indonesia and Oman. The platforms allow individual and institutional investors to access a range of direct investment opportunities in companies and projects.
Ethis has set a number of precedents in Islamic fintech. It is the first Shariah-compliant equity crowdfunding platform in Malaysia and is now in the initial phase of rolling out EthisX, a global Ethical Private Capital Market Platform, regulated in the Sultanate of Oman. It is scaling up quickly in Indonesia, where it is short-term Musharakah funding projects is steadily growing with global and local retail investors and a range of local institutional financiers. In Malaysia, Ethis is building momentum with recent issues on its own oversubscribed crowdfunding platform.
Overall, Islamic fintech is growing at 18% a year globally, a faster rate than the broader fintech market. Growth is driven by real funding gaps, strong demand from users and the ESG component embedded in Islamic finance. This has caught the attention of VCs, and governments, especially in Islamic finance centres.
“Over the past 2 years, a number of our fintech entrepreneur friends have secured major investments from notable institutions and VCs. It’s time for Ethis to join forces with institutions that see the opportunity we have to rapidly build on our grip in our focus markets of Southeast Asia and the GCC, while exploring the unique opportunity to enter new markets and explore unique investment opportunities. We want to drive efficient and impactful circulation of capital in the real economy. We have the people, the licenses, the goodwill and key infrastructure to strive forward, Umar added.
The Ethis founders also lead the work to develop the sector and the ecosystem. Umar is the chairman of the founding group of the Islamic Fintech Alliance and Ronald is the president of the Shariah Fintech Association Indonesia (AFSI), a recognized sub-regulatory body.
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ABOUT THIS GROUP
Ethis Group operates crowd investment platforms approved by regulators in Indonesia, Malaysia and Oman.
Our platforms serve ordinary people, high net worth individuals, businesses and government entities. Ethis built our initial track record from 2016 to 2020 in social housing in Indonesia where our global community of investors from more than 50 countries funded development projects to build close to 10,000 homes. We recently launched EthisX, the cross-border Ethical Private Capital Market Platform.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have launched popular new investment products, including short-term, high-yield supply chain financing projects in Indonesia and equity investments in “future technology” startups in Malaysia. Our social finance marketplace GlobalSadaqah plays an important role in matching donors and actors in Islamic finance to better distribute social finance and zakat to NGOs and social enterprises. EthisX aims to address the lack of availability of Shariah-compliant and ethical alternative financing and financing in emerging and developed non-Muslim countries with large enough Muslim populations.
We exist to #circulate well. Our deep desire to create a more ethical form of finance to uplift humanity has attracted significant financial and community leaders to support our vision and mission.
For more information about Ethis Group, please visit https://ethis.co
For media enquiries, please contact:
Anise’s Muslim
Senior Manager, Marketing and Communications
Ethis Global Sdn. Bhd
Email: [email protected]
Afiqah Abdul Aziz
PR and marketing manager
Ethis Global Sdn. Bhd
Email: [email protected]
