Dubai fintech Wafr has closed a pre-seed funding round and launched WafrChain, its platform for bringing Shariah-compliant sukuk on-chain. The company announced both moves on Tuesday, November 10.
The round is backed by Coen Jonker, co-founder of digital banking group Tyme Group, and Neal Cross, former chief innovation officer at DBS Bank. Wafr did not disclose the amount it raised.
What WafrChain does
WafrChain is a private, permissioned blockchain that connects the institutions involved in a sukuk lifecycle through one shared record. Issuance, distribution, settlement and profit payments all run on the platform, and sukuk tokenisation is live from day one.
Each issuer’s Shariah board approval is recorded on-chain before distribution, while Wafr’s own Shariah board checks that the structure is compliant. Settlement can happen in fiat currency through local real-time gross settlement systems and SWIFT, or in stablecoins, and banks connect through a single API.
The network is built for institutional speed and privacy. Transactions reach finality in 300 milliseconds, each participant sees only its own activity, and the network keeps running with only a third of its nodes active.
Why sukuk issuance is ripe for rebuilding
A single sukuk issuance typically involves eight separate parties, from the issuer and trustee to arrangers, the Shariah board, custodians, the paying agent, distributors and investors. Each keeps its own record of the same instrument, so every transfer, profit payment and corporate action is re-keyed and reconciled between them.
That friction adds cost and delay, and an issuance can take many months and in some cases more than a year to reach the market. The prize for fixing it is large. Sukuk outstanding reached US$1.14 trillion in 2025, with annual issuance up 14.5 percent to US$291.4 billion, according to the ICD-LSEG Islamic Finance Development Report 2026.
Global Islamic finance assets reached US$6.5 trillion in 2025, up 9 percent on the year. Wafr is betting that a meaningful share of that market will move on-chain as institutions look for faster and cheaper ways to issue and settle.
The backers behind the round
Jonker co-founded Tyme Group, the digital banking group, and previously served as a group executive at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Cross co-founded PictureWealth and led innovation at DBS Bank as its chief innovation officer. Both invested as individuals.
Wafr was co-founded in March 2026 by chief executive Mahmoud Bouchelif and chief product officer Anthony Murphy. Bouchelif is a former Islamic banker who founded LeanTech SG, built it into a profitable business with seven-figure revenue without external funding, and has advised GCC banking leaders on digital transformation for around a decade.
Murphy has launched digital banking products at AMP, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Macquarie Bank. He brings the product experience Wafr needs as it turns a complex institutional workflow into software banks can plug into.
Islamic finance can bring abundance to people, businesses and economies, yet access to services that reflect its principles remains uneven. We are building Wafr for everyone who believes finance should be fair, transparent and ethical, whatever their faith. WafrChain is our starting point, giving institutions a foundation for bringing Shariah-compliant assets on-chain while we develop the services people need to manage their financial lives across borders.
Mahmoud Bouchelif, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Wafr
I have long believed that someone will build a truly global digital finance business for the Muslim world. The need is clear, the opportunity is enormous, and the technology now makes it possible to think beyond traditional banking models. Wafr is pursuing that ambition with a clear sense of purpose, and I’m excited by Mahmoud’s determination and his co-founders to make it happen.
Coen Jonker, Co-Founder of Tyme Group and angel investor in Wafr
What Wafr plans next
Beyond sukuk, Wafr plans to tokenise funds and deposits and move into trade finance and business-to-business settlement. Its consumer plans span global accounts, cross-border remittances and cards, with agentic AI and stablecoin-enabled settlement forming part of the wider strategy.
The company describes its purpose as abundance for everyone, and it aims to expand financial access for unbanked and underserved communities. Its consumer services will arrive in line with the relevant regulatory processes and approvals, working with licensed partners where required.
UAE fintech is having a busy week. Tabby Cash passed one million UAE accounts in two months, showing how fast digital finance is growing in the Emirates.
