Perpetual Islamic capital · for the tech founders of the ummah
A waqf is an endowment that is never spent. Its capital is preserved in perpetuity and only its investment income is given away. digiwaqf turns Islamic giving into a permanent engine that funds Muslim tech founders, round after round, through non-repayable grants and interest-free loans.
Two separate worlds
Investors get no role in the charity. Donors get no equity. The two worlds never mix. By design.
The mechanism
Donors give into the waqf corpus, irrevocably, as sadaqah. The principal is never spent.
The corpus is placed in conservative Shariah securities (sukuk, Islamic funds), earning a capital-safe yield.
Only the income funds founders. Part is reinvested to grow the corpus against inflation.
Every 4 months a round opens. Donors signal by voting; a Shariah investment committee decides and publishes why.
The platform
The model
| Corpus | Income 4.5% | U21C fee | To capital | Grants | Founders / yr | U21C P&L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10M | $450k | $100k | $200k | $110k | 1–2 | −$200k |
| $30M | $1.35M | $300k | $600k | $330k | 4–5 | break-even |
| $50M | $2.25M | $500k | $1.0M | $550k | ~7 | +$200k |
| $100M | $4.5M | $1.0M | $2.0M | $1.1M | ~15 | +$700k |
With Hub71 absorbing office, housing, visas and services, a two-person team keeps opex ≈ $108k/yr. Peak cash need is a shallow ≈$151k at month 15, inside Hub71's AED 500k package, and U21C reaches operating break-even by month 16 (~$14M corpus), fully repaying the valley by month 24. The real variable is corpus speed, which is what the raise and the Gulf road-show are for.
Run without external subsidy, a fuller team costs ≈ $300k/yr. On that heavier base U21C crosses into profit at a ≈$30M corpus and funds progressively more founders as it grows (the P&L column of the table above).
The single monetisation point is a service fee on the fund's income: halal, disclosed, capped to real services. Break-even depends on the cost base: ≈$14M corpus in the lean, Hub71-backed plan; ≈$30M standalone. Either way the strategy is the same: a relationship-led drive toward institutional and family-office donors in the Gulf.
Roadmap · Abu Dhabi
U21C incorporates in the Abu Dhabi Global Market: English common law, a deep Islamic-finance ecosystem, and the licensing to stand the structure up properly.
Abu Dhabi is the base for a relationship-led drive to the institutions and family offices that seed a real endowment, not a retail funnel.
Regional financial institutions provide the payment and custody rails, and a path to corporate and CSR co-donors across the region.
A founder relocates to Abu Dhabi and builds the team locally, close to the donors, the regulator and the ecosystem.
People
