Islamic real estate crowdfunding platform EthisCrowd raises 0.5 mln Singapore dollars seed funding

Photo: Kampung Islami Thoyibah Phase 1 development in Indonesia / Courtesy EthisCrowd

EthisCrowd.com, a Singapore-based Islamic real estate crowdfunding platform, has raised 0.5 million Singapore dollars ($363,000) in cash and kind seed funding, the company said in a statement today.

The round was led by Azmi Global, a subsidiary of Malaysian law firm Azmi & Associates, and Quest Ventures, a Singapore-based venture fund. Angel investors from Singapore and the Middle East also invested, said EthisCrowd.

Azmi & Associates has a strong Islamic finance practice in Malaysia and sees the potential for Islamic crowdfunding to potentially fill gaps in the industry, Ahmad Lutfi, the firm’s managing partner and head of Islamic banking said.

Quest Ventures backs early-stage companies in Asia. The fund already backs Islamic Economy digital start-ups Kapital Boost, which was co-founded by EthisCrowd’s Umar Munshi and Erly Witoyo, and Ihram.asia, an Indonesia-based umrah search platform.

Quest Ventures is led by James Tan and Wang Yunming who are co-founders of NASDAQ-listed 55tuan, one of China’s largest social e-commerce companies.

EthisCrowd says it will channel the seed investment into three areas: expansion in Asia Pacific, improving corporate governance and project selection, and technology enhancements.

“Our expansion strategy is to setup in regions where there’s strong growth and interest from our crowd,” said founder Umar Munshi, who is also chairman of the recently-established nine-member Islamic Fintech Alliance.

EthisCrowd started in early 2014 and focuses on crowdfunding to provide bridging finance to developers for Social Impact Real Estate Developments. It now has a base of 10,000 members who have already invested 1 million Singapore dollars ($725,000) this year in subsidized housing development projects in Indonesia, said the platform.

(Writing by Emmy Abdul Alim)

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