New York-based Islamic robo-advisor Wahed Invest has begun testing its technology in Bahrain, ticking off another country from its international growth strategy.
The Halal automated investment platform has been accepted into the Central Bank of Bahrain’s regulatory sandbox, making it one of three of the most recent cohort to gain the opportunity to experiment their solutions in Bahrain. Along with BitArabia and bitcoin trading platform and digital wallet Belfrics, Wahed Invest is using the next nine months to trial solutions in a regulatory-light environment.
The expansion into Bahrain is part of Wahed Invest’s ambitious growth strategy targeting major Islamic finance markets in different regions. The robo-advisor began setting up in Dubai last year, and is now present in London and Mumbai; IFN also understands that the firm has begun looking at penetrating the Malaysian market.
Keeping itself busy, the US firm has also welcomed three new members to its investment committee, charged with evaluating the financial assets of the platform’s investment portfolio and ensure the models are robust and expected returns are suitable for each risk profile.
The new additions to Wahed Invest bring with them decades of experience in the investment universe: Navid Goraya is the CEO and managing director of White Oak Advisors who used to head HSBC Asset Management; Dr Allan Lane was the former head of product for Blackrock’s EMEA iShares ETFs, and now is the managing partner of Twenty20 Investments; and Jahangir Sultan is a professor of finance at Bentley University.
“Wahed’s mission is to ensure our clients have access to the most ethically sound and efficient Halal investing plaform,” said Junaid Wahedna, CEO of Wahed Invest. “With the addition of our new investment committee members, Wahed is continuing to deliver Muslims the opportunity to provide for themselves, their families and their futures in a way that they can feel good about.”