Manzil, a Toronto-based FinTech startup that offers halal financial solutions including mortgages, has launched a partnership with fellow Toronto-based FinTech startup, Koho, to give Muslims and non-Muslims a halal prepaid Visa card.
“We are excited to extend our platform to Manzil’s user base to allow them the convenience and support of digital banking.”
The new product allows users to save and earn cashback on all purchases, round up spare change and save it, automate savings, and earn up to an extra five percent cashback at select merchants. This card is aimed to give Muslims and non-Muslims the opportunity to save, spend, and budget without incurring any debt or paying excessive fees or interest rates. The product currently features no interest.
“One of the main principles of Islamic finance is to not enter into agreements that could potentially allow you to pay or receive interest and this prepaid Visa provides our user base the peace of mind to not have to worry about that anymore,” said Mohamad Sawwaf, Manzil’s CEO and co-founder.
“We are so excited to add this solution as part of the Manzil product offering and to help Canadians who are looking to adhere to their religious principles as well as those who are ethically conscious,” added Sawwaf.
The prepaid Visa also includes Halal cashback. The cashback provided happens post-transaction, which Manzil said is “Islamically permissible” as it is considered a gift.
Manzil and Koho stated they will be working towards a deeper relationship that will include category restrictions, custom branded Manzil cards, and Halal perks.
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“The team at Koho is motivated to build holistic financial tools that are equally accessible to all Canadians, and so we are excited to extend our platform to Manzil’s user base to allow them the convenience and support of digital banking,” said Daniel Eberhard, founder and CEO at Koho.
Manzil has created “shariah-compliant” financial products for Muslim Canadians, which it says are designed to be participatory, rather than predatory. In conventional mortgages, for example, consumers enter into a loan agreement whereby they pay the lender back the money they borrowed plus interest over a defined term. Manzil’s financial products and services are built on the principle of sharing the risk among the parties, not charging interest, and not buying into industries deemed “sinful,” such as gambling and weapons.
Koho is looking to disrupt the Canadian banking system with its full-service chequing account that comes with a reloadable prepaid Visa card and integrated app. The startup is backed by Portag3 Ventures, as well as Power Financial Corporation, which has invested in other alternative FinTech services including Wealthsimple, Borrowell, and League.
Koho has launched partnerships with a number of other companies in recent months, including a collaboration with staffing startup Hyr that gave Hyr users early access to their paycheque and government payments at no cost to the user. That offering has since been expanded to all Koho users.
Image source Manzil.