UAE’s Fasset harnesses blockchain to spread digital Islamic banking across Africa

As Islamic banking moves further into the digital age, UAE-based Fasset is betting it can use fintech tools to deliver Shariah-compliant services to millions of people across Africa and other developing regions.

Founded in 2019, Fasset is preparing to shift from a financial “super app” into a fully licensed digital Islamic bank, backed by Gulf investors including Bahrain-based asset manager Investcorp, which is partly owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. The company is positioning itself as a bridge between modern digital banking and the strict rules of Islamic finance.

The move by Fasset to build its banking services comes as regulators across the Gulf accelerate digital initiatives and encourage innovation in Islamic-compliant fintech, a market projected to reach $179 billion globally by 2026. The company aims to use blockchain technology to lower costs, increase efficiency and extend banking services to regions with large underbanked Muslim populations.

“Our goal is to be the Revolut for Asia and Africa,” co-founder Daniel Ahmed said in an interview with The Circuit, referring to the London-based digital bank known for low-cost accounts and cross-border payments. Fasset’s challenge is adapting the model to Islamic finance, which prohibits interest and speculative activity and ties financial returns to ownership of real assets.

Since Ahmed and partner Mohammed Raafi Hossain launched Fasset in Bahrain, the company has raised more than $28 million from investors and is now in the process of closing a Series B funding round. Fasset’s platform enables customers to send money, access digital tokens and settle transactions quickly. It is now adapting that infrastructure to support Islamic banking products, including savings, payments and Shariah-compliant investments.

The Islamic banking industry manages more than $3 trillion in assets globally and is most prevalent in the Gulf, Southeast Asia, South Asia and parts of Africa, serving hundreds of millions of customers. While traditionally dominated by conventional banks offering Islamic finance “windows,” the sector has increasingly moved online as regulators approve fully digital Islamic banks and fintech platforms aimed at expanding access.

A core focus for Fasset is cross-border payments between the Gulf and Africa, where remittances – money sent home by workers and businesses – are a financial lifeline but often slow and expensive. The UAE alone sent more than $15 billion to Africa last year, supporting households, trade and small businesses.

Fasset facilitates such transfers using blockchain-based settlement tools, including digital tokens linked to traditional currencies, reducing the number of intermediaries involved.

“A lot of businesses are converting local currency to stablecoins,” Ahmed said. “We have customers that send us [UAE] dirhams and we pay out in Kenya.”.

The broader vision includes Islamic investment products such as digital sukuk –  Shariah-compliant bonds that generate returns through ownership of assets rather than interest –  and tokenized real-world assets, which allow investors to buy fractional digital stakes in physical or productive assets. 

In this model, tokens function as digital records of ownership rather than speculative instruments. That distinction has become central to debates over how blockchain technology can comply with Islamic law.

“Tokenization is not the point,” Ahmed said. “The underlying asset has to be compliant.”

The approach mirrors growing institutional interest in blockchain as financial infrastructure rather than speculation. Global firms including BlackRock, JPMorgan and HSBC have launched tokenization pilots, while Gulf governments have expanded Islamic fintech licensing. Saudi Arabia has doubled the number of Islamic fintech licenses issued over the past 18 months.

Islamic banking has traditionally been more complex and costly than conventional finance, but digital platforms are beginning to narrow that gap. “A lot of these platforms are on the same level or cheaper,” Ahmed said, citing automation and embedded compliance.

Varun Bafna, co-founder of Dubai-based trading platform Amari Capital, said demand for Shariah-compliant digital services is expanding across payments, microfinance and investment products. “The future is shaped by tokenized real-world assets, cross-border digital sukuk issuance and automated Sharia governance,” he said.

For Fasset’s founders – who met as young fintech advisors in the UAE Prime Minister’s Office – that mission is personal. Hossain, the company’s CEO, was born in Bangladesh before moving to the U.S. as a child, while Ahmed, Fasset’s COO, grew up in Pakistan and London. They cite those early moves as providing insight into the gap between modern finance and the limits faced in developing markets.

“We had the privilege of growing up in the West, so we understand the pain points that a lot of our families and friends and other connected people face in these markets,” Ahmed said. “We saw that as an incredible problem to solve.”