Launching its first Fintech Islamic Finance Challenge this month, the IDB Group is seeking start-ups and entrepreneurs with game-changing ideas in the hope of creating a fintech ecosystem within the global Islamic finance industry.
The Islamic multilateral financier is providing opportunities to five projects it thinks are able to translate an innovative idea into real-life settings delivering real and tangible impact in society. These five finalists will be granted a sum of money as well as provided with a year-long mentorship program with a mentor from Spanish university IE Business School and an intensive four-day fintech bootcamp at IE in Madrid.
“We are here to listen to creative and innovative minds looking for solutions to improve the access to Islamic financial services through technology and to those who are determined to contribute to a socially responsible development according to Islamic finance principles,” said the IDB.
Open to all interested parties based in any of the group’s 57-member countries, the IDB is taking a slightly different approach toward Shariah fintech, opening the doors to fresh green start-ups with only ideas to show. It will then provide these companies with the guidance, expertise and support they need.
“Accommodation and transport for finalists and teachers (one representative for [each] project), facilitators’ fees, experts’ fees, team-building events, breakfast and lunch are included,” the IDB noted.
The Fintech Islamic Finance Challenge is among the latest initiatives by the supranational to promote technologically-based financial solutions that contribute to a socially responsible development through an ethical and Shariah compliant manner; its private arm a few months ago revealed its plans to set up an incubator for Shariah-friendly fintech start-ups (See IFN Fintech May Issue).