Jaques Bernard, Senior Investment Officer, iSCF Capital Limited, UAE said: “When we talk about crowdfunding 70% of the crowd is the institutional crowd. It is obvious in this region lower equity is the result of smaller commodity process resulting in the supply which would favor crowd surfing platforms. More and more institution are participating in crowdfunding. In the non-profit area which is about 35 billion dollars of crowdfunding 8% went to donations which is very encouraging and a significant percentage as compared to traditional banking systems”.
Hans Henrik Christensen, Director Silicon Oasis Founders, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority says “Fintech will be one of the important and a particularly important sector in Islamic Finance which will benefit most from crowdfunding. We are looking at creating an accelerator to address this sector. Soon our company will also be announcing Smart City accelerator. It is important to regulate the market as it will be one of the key drivers. There is a responsibility within the ecosystem, with the regulators, governments which in this region is enhancing the way crowdfunding should grow”.
Mathew Joseph Martin, CEO, Blossom Finance, USA said “Muslim across the world as a global population do not have access to financial products as compared to non-Muslim across the region. There is an opportunity which is served by on bank and under bank. Microfinance is one important area which helps to deploy the capital and can help in crowd funding. We need to have the right under writing model. As an organization we have partnered with local finance companies. Regulations are great and very important as we want to be global Umma where we use crowdfunding as a tool to empower the global wealth”.
Sam Quawami, Co- Founder, Eureeca-UK said “From an equity perspective UK has been a champion in the equity crowdfunding space as the market is mature there. We can implement the lessons in emerging markets and implement the same model. Unemployment is one of the key issues across the world as 60-70% of the jobs are in the SME sector and 90% of the companies start employing when the company is funded. If the government wants to tackle unemployment equity crowdfunding is one the key solutions. It is important to regulate the industry which is absolutely crucial. Educating the market is another important factor along with providing tax incentives. We are the first equity funding platform to work with AIG Insurance”.
Umar Munshi, Founder, Ethis Crowd-Malaysia said “Islamic crowdfunding in today’s scenario doesn’t exist. Besides from Sharia compliance Islamic crowdfunding is also about serving Muslim needs and at the same time tailoring solutions. It is about serving Muslims for funding projects. There is a huge shift in mindset in crowdfunding which needs to be highlighted as the market is mature”.
In a separate session titled “In Conversation With”, Public Intellectual and Producer Moez Masoud said: “Islam is a path to reality that helps the human being discern between what is real and what is illusion. This helps them develop an attachment to what is real, while detaching from the illusion.”
Masoud added: “Islam is not a monolithic entity; it is a belief system that is more than a thousand years old and it is open, tolerant, and diverse. Once we understand Islam for what it really is, and do away with single-answer Fiqh, our communities can evolve and move forward.”
-Ends-
© Press Release 2016
