In 2019, Daniel Ahmed and Mohammad Raafi Hossain, co-founded Fasset. A new Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency platform, Fasset’s goal is to make investing in digital assets more accessible to developing nations. Both Ahmed and Hossain were working at the United Arab Emirates Prime Minister’s Office when they founded the company.
“I was an advisor on policy, strategy and innovation mandates, while Daniel was a senior analyst on building strategic policies and initiatives related to artificial intelligence,” Hossain told ICE Business Times.
“With my background in climate change and sustainable development from my time working with the UN, and Daniel’s expertise in emerging technology and fintech, our complementary backgrounds were the founding basis of Fasset.”
With the latest Series A round of founding, Fasset plans to expand its workforce and member usership.
Humanitarian and Entrepreneur Mohammad Raafi Hossain
Hossain, CEO at Fasset, has experience founding financial technology companies. In 2016 he started the London-based “think-and-do tank” Finocracy. Similar to Fasset, Finocracy was also a humanitarian-focused digital finance company. Both startups partnered with corporations and government agencies to “democratize access to opportunities for the next billion,” wrote Hossain.
“Inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have been leveraging blockchain and tokenization technology to accelerate the financing of sustainable infrastructure across the world,” Hossain said about Fasset.
Hossain launched his first startup, the Qatar-based Islamic crowdfunding platform Narwi, with Silatech in 2015. Narwi “allows donors to support micro-entrepreneurs of their choice by establishing an endowment, or ‘Narwi-Waqf,’” Hossain explained.
“Narwi provides financing for the startup and growth of very small, or ‘micro’ enterprises, thereby creating much-needed jobs in the Middle East and North Africa.” The World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists acquired the platform in 2017.
Before Narwi, Hossain spent four years with various United Nations offices in the MENA region. He worked for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the OCHA, and the Environment Programme. Hossain holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Economics and Policy from UC Berkeley. He is also a Certified Islamic Finance Executive with the Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance.
Fasset COO Daniel Ahmed
Co-founder Ahmed is Chief Operating Officer at Fasset. He graduated from King’s College London in 2016 with a BSc in Political Economy. Soon after, Ahmed attended the Young Muslim Leadership Programme at the University of Oxford.
Then Ahmed went on to work as an Investment Analyst for the energy infrastructure investment management company Bluefield Partners. He was then a Business Analyst for the tech and fintech teams of the consulting company Deliotte.
In 2017, Ahmed joined the UAE Prime Minister’s office where he “designed and delivered strategic policies and initiatives across AI and blockchain projects for the UAE,” he wrote.
Fasset raises $22 Million in Series A Funding
Created on the Ethereum blockchain, Fasset aims to make investing more accessible worldwide. The startup’s main focus is on South Asia.
Ultimately, the Fasset aims to reach “farmers and working-class people across the globe who might struggle to gain access to tools like loans and savings accounts,” reads Fasset. “Too often these people are left out of the investment ecosystem and can only watch as their savings lose value over time.”
Fasset breaks up and tokenizes physical assets in the digital world. According to Fasset, Infrastructure such as parks, bridges, and power make resilient and lower-risk portfolio options for investors.
“As climate change continues to intensify in South Asia, we see the benefits that digital asset innovation can bring to further environmental goals, strengthen technological foundations and boost investments in the region,” explained Hossain.
“We aim to raise sustainable economic well-being and launched the world’s first comprehensive operating system dedicated to the ethical financing of sustainable infrastructure on the Ethereum blockchain, opening up access to digital asset ownership to fast-track raising living standards for the next billion people.”
The company also has an educational program Fasset Hub. For example, The Hub offers free courses on topics including bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. The platform is designed to be easily understandable to non-native English speakers.
Pakistan-based Fatima Gobi Ventures and New York-based Liberty City Ventures were the lead Series A investors. With its latest round of funding, Fasset has raised $26.7 million to date.
