Why Fasset is focused on financial opportunities for all
Generation Start-up: The all-in-one Dubai-based super app is built on the blockchain, allowing users to invest in digital assets, remit funds and manage digital wallets
When Mohammad Raafi Hossain and Daniel Ahmed set out to develop Fasset, a blockchain-based all-in-one super app, more than four years ago, their aim was to solve one of the most pressing issues in the world of personal finance: financial inclusion.
“Ever since Dan and I met, our personal mission has always been democratising access to opportunity,” says Mr Hossain, who is also the chief executive of Fasset.
“I was born in Bangladesh, Daniel's from Pakistan, but I moved to Los Angeles when I was one and Daniel grew up in London. So, we've been privileged and fortunate to see both sides of the aisle and how unequal access to opportunity is not necessarily just opportunity itself but accessing that opportunity.”
Mr Ahmed, the start-up's chief operating officer, agrees, saying: “We have roots in the East and kind of grew up in the West; we understand the plight of a lot of people in this part of the world, in emerging markets in particular.”
Fasset, which went live in the UAE last month, is a digital asset exchange that allows users to invest in digital and tokenised real-world assets (RWAs), take part in spot exchange transactions and remit funds globally in a blockchain environment.
Tokenised RWAs are virtual investments on the blockchain that are linked to tangible assets, such as real estate, gold, art and stocks and bonds that can be bought in fractions, according to CoinDesk.
The start-up was granted a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) licence last November and a Full Market Product (FMP) licence in December by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.
The global acceleration of FinTech and digital payment solutions since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has unlocked new financial opportunities for millions of people who previously did not have access to bank accounts or ways to invest, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 report, which is released every three years.
“The World Bank Group considers financial inclusion a key enabler to reduce extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity,” the Washington-based lender says on its website.
About 22 per cent of the GCC's population is unbanked, compared with 60 per cent in North Africa, research by consultancy Strategy& has found.
Meanwhile, 79 per cent of young adults in the Middle East and North Africa region are unbanked and 72 per cent of the poorest citizens can benefit from financial inclusion, according to the Arab Monetary Fund.
Fasset’s investment options include cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, as well as tokenised RWAs ranging from exchange-traded funds to non-fungible tokens, sukuks, theme-based investment bundles, global stocks and bonds.
It also offers lending, borrowing and remittance services, while potential investors can test the app and their investment skills in Fasset Play.
Mr Hossain and Mr Ahmed quickly recognised the equal opportunities that blockchain enables while working on artificial intelligence and blockchain initiatives as advisers in the UAE Prime Minister’s Office.
“Predominantly, that comes from the fact that when you put assets on blockchain, everyone, no matter what race, religion or creed, has equal access on a technology that doesn't differentiate between your passport or where you're from, or how much money you have in your bank,” Mr Hossain says.
“And that's when we thought: ‘Why not put a platform together that embraces one of the defining technologies of our time and enable access to financial opportunity to anyone and everyone?”
Fasset began with an initial investment of $2.45 million from three family offices. So far, it has raised a total of $26.7 million in funding and is now at the pre-Series B stage.
In April 2022, the digital financial platform closed a $22 million Series A funding round led by Investcorp, New York-based Liberty City Ventures and Pakistan’s Fatima Gobi Ventures. Other investors in the round included Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, myAsiaVC, Soma Capital, Kanoo Capital, Formus Capital, FHS Capital and local family offices.
At the time, the co-founders, who have backgrounds in FinTech and Islamic and ethical finance, said they would use the funding to expand its digital asset-driven remittance services in Asia.
Watch: Best apps for transferring money in the UAE
The UAE is Fasset’s second country of operations following its launch in Indonesia last August, in which it attracted more than 1 million customers on a waiting list within the first week.
Fasset has been issued a crypto asset trading license by Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Authority, known as Bappebti, as well as securing licences in Turkey and the European Union.
The start-up's partnership with Indonesia's Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, marks the first time the company has embedded its digital asset exchange in a telco app.
Fasset’s “business-to-business-to consumer” focus also allows companies to offer the super app to their customers, Mr Ahmed says.
“In Indonesia, we work with the second-largest telco there, where we built a crypto or digital asset wallet for their customers,” he says.
“The customers can buy or sell packages, data, minutes – you can think of it like a desktop app – but they've got a kind of lifestyle application where these customers can also buy and sell digital assets,” Mr Ahmed adds.
“When it comes to the personal finance level, it is directly to the customer from Fasset, but also through enterprises that we're working on as well.”
The company has also partnered with MasterCard to offer a crypto card to users in the region, which customers will be able to start using in the next three months to buy and sell digital assets and use it for spending.
“That's a huge finance-use case,” Mr Ahmed says.
The start-up is currently working with two partners to launch its remittance services for UAE customers to “efficiently” send money home to countries such as the Philippines and to the Central Asia region.
“We're licensed in multiple emerging markets and there's a lot of corridors that the UAE enables, so the goal with Fasset is, very soon, you'll be able to send money to all the different places that originate from here,” Mr Ahmed says.
When Mr Hossain and Mr Ahmed started the company, one question they often asked themselves was, “Who is Fasset’s last user?”
They identified their last user as an individual who lives in a remote part of the world and has internet access, but is unable to live a financially inclusive life.
Today, Fasset’s target demographic is tech-savvy young people, aged between 24 and 40, who live in the Morocco to Malaysia belt and are looking for ways to invest, manage their assets and grow their wealth for generations to come.
“We get them to be educated on what a diverse portfolio means, what moving money across countries can do for you and then we work our way down and understand how we can then optimise the experience for the next batch of people,” Mr Hossain says.
“It's a journey … [and] it doesn't happen overnight.”
Q&A with Fasset co-founder Daniel Ahmed
What other successful start-up do you wish you had started?
Our passion is to equalise access to opportunity in emerging markets. We believe all people, with the right access and opportunity, can build a fulfilling life. If we hadn’t focused on solving the problem of financial opportunity, we probably would have started a company focused on solving access to health care or education.
Who is your role model?
We take a lot of inspiration from technology pioneers like Elon Musk who have an incredible vision, but really get into the details and first principles of solving a problem.
What new skills have you learnt since launching Fasset?
A lot. Running a start-up is like flying a plane while building it, and becoming a jack of all trades. We’ve learnt a lot about how products are built, to customer service all the way to how a finance department should function.
Where do you want to be in five years?
Running a successful business that is helping people across emerging markets with their everyday financial services needs.
If you could do it all differently, what would you change?
There are too many learnings to list! Speaking to customers to understand their pain points and build what they want would have been something I would do as early as possible.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
UK Innovator Founder Visa is aimed at those who can demonstrate relevant experience in business and sufficient investment funds to set up and scale up a new business in the UK. It offers permanent residence after three years.
Germany Investing or establishing a business in Germany offers you a residence permit, which eventually leads to citizenship. The investment must meet an economic need and you have to have lived in Germany for five years to become a citizen.
Italy The scheme is designed for foreign investors committed to making a significant contribution to the economy. Requires a minimum investment of €250,000 which can rise to €2 million.
Switzerland Residence Programme offers residence to applicants and their families through economic contributions. The applicant must agree to pay an annual lump sum in tax.
Canada Start-Up Visa Programme allows foreign entrepreneurs the opportunity to create a business in Canada and apply for permanent residence.
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Australia World Cup squad
Aaron Finch (capt), Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
