“Can Aafaq Islamic Finance become the leading digital-first Islamic finance platform for UAE SMEs by embedding Shariah-compliant lending and payments at the merchant point-of-sale?”
Founded in 2006 as a Shariah-compliant finance company in the UAE, Aafaq Islamic Finance has evolved from a traditional Islamic finance provider into a digital-first Islamic fintech. The company has accelerated its digital transformation through key partnerships — selecting Network International for card processing and launching an embedded SME lending platform with Magnati in 2024. The Magnati partnership signals a deliberate move toward embedded finance, using real-time POS data to underwrite business loans at the point of merchant activity.