A new fintech startup in ADGM is banking on shariah-compliant investors in the region, and wants to be their go-to brokerage by offering access to some 40k stocks across 20 exchanges worldwide. Tabadulat, which secured in-principle approval from the ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), is awaiting its full license, after which it will roll out the platform in the GCC.

The platform will provide fractional trading, a zakat calculator, and shariah screening, and is built around what founder and CEO Samy Mohamed (Linkedin) calls “full-stack shariah compliance.” The platform’s transaction fees will start at 0.25%.

The target market is younger GCC professionals seeking to invest in a shariah-compliant way. “The way your money is handled, all of our client money accounts, the execution, the market connectivity — everything is overseen and approved by our Shariah Supervisory Board,” Mohamed said. The point is to help investors preserve and grow wealth in a shariah-compliant way, as opposed to encouraging leverage or day trading, he added.

The focus is on helping investors make gains in a compliant way — without carrying risk. The platform will not give users access to things like derivatives or options to minimize risk, Mohamed said.

It plans to track markets that offer liquidity and demand: “Markets like Saudi and the UAE are really important because they list a large number of shariah-compliant stocks,” Mohamed said, warning that US-only investors would miss out on exposure to Islamic banks. Indonesia and other exchanges are also on the cards for inclusion.

In the long term, Tabadulat wants to democratize sukuk. “The average ticket size for a sukuk is USD 100-200k per sakk,” Mohamed explained. Fractionalizing and allowing investors to hold smaller portions would be “huge” for liquidity and price discovery,” he said.

Partnerships will be central to growth: “Integrating with a bank that has over 100k customers at once is a quick way to maintain competitiveness and make sure the sharia-compliant investor doesn’t have to pay extra,” he said, adding that its clients’ funds will be held with some of the largest banks in the UAE, including First Abu Dhabi Bank. The firm is also “very strongly” considering offering US trades at no cost if exchange reimbursements allow.

Momentum looks strong. “Our waitlist has been growing at almost 50% a month,” Mohamed said, with signups now near 1k. The firm is targeting 100k customers by year-end across both direct and B2B channels.

Funding so far totals USD 2.3 mn from a friends-and-family round closed in June. “We haven’t taken any outside professional investment to date,” Mohamed said. “We’re disciplined on capital expenditure, and most of our cashburn will go toward growth and customer acquisition. We’ll only go for an institutional round once we have traction.”

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