IslamicFinance.de

Indonesian sharia-compliant fintech startup Alami secured funding in a pre-seed round led by Singapore-based VC firm Tryb. Alami, which recently obtained a P2P registration from Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK), operates a platform for Islamic financing. Tryb principal Herston Powers said the sharia fintech market was a huge and untapped market in Indonesia with significant growth prospects. Both companies look to propel the sharia finance sector in Indonesia, which currently has the largest Muslim population in the world with about 90% of its 260 million people being Muslims.

A startup that recently relocated from San Francisco to Jakarta aims to shake up micro-finance in Indonesia. Blossom‘s concept can be said to be breaking ground: it operates on Bitcoin and targets the global Muslim community. Blossom collects money from investors around the globe. Blossom does not hand down the funds to business owners directly, but via an experienced microfinance institution on the ground. After a 12-month investment cycle, Blossom collects profits from the microfinance institutions and distributes them back to the investors. Blossom expects returns in the range of 7.5 to 12.5 percent, and itself takes a 20 percent cut on the returns. All of its money transfers are based on Bitcoin.