WealthPoint recently announced the launch of Shari’ah Wealth, a Shariah compliant version of its global real estate investment platform.
WealthPoint has partnered with Global Islamic Finance Services (GIFS) to provide a version of its platform that is audited to ensure compliance with the key principles of Islamic investing.
Under the partnership, GIFS’s responsibility is to ensure the Shariah compliance of WealthPoint’s investment platform, including its deal flow, the way the money is moved, deal structuring and the real estate asset class.
“Both companies in the partnership share a strong vision for the potential of financial technologies to open up investments to a wider audience.
“However, there is a strong commitment to vigorous levels of compliance and safety for investors, and extensive work was done to ensure all aspects of the platform met the highest levels of regulation,” Gavin Rossouw, COO of WealthPoint, tells IFN.
WealthPoint acknowledges that there are several in-country competitors in each of the territories it aims to operate in, although in almost all cases the competitors’ deal flow is restricted to real estate in that country.
Meanwhile, Shari’ah Wealth’s unique offering focuses on global real estate, allowing investors to build a global portfolio through a single platform.
The platform faced many challenges during its initial stages and it has taken many years to test and iterate on issues relating to investor compliance, deal-level compliance and aggregating investors through fractional ownership.
Through that process, WealthPoint developed robust operational protocols that made it easy for the Shariah scholars to evaluate and audit the platform to determine its Shariah compliance.
“On launch, Shari’ah Wealth will offer institutional grade direct real estate investment and Shariah compliant structured notes by one of the largest issuers of the same in Europe. Over time, other alternative assets will be added in the private equity space,” Rossouw explains.
Shari’ah Wealth is targeting 20,000 active investors in the next five years from a global investor base.