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A Central Asia-based fintech is heading to the Gulf. IMAN Holdings announced on 23 June 2026 that it plans to raise $100 million to expand its AI-powered Islamic banking platform into GCC markets, adding to the $10 million it has already raised from global investors.
Founded in 2020, the company has built a mobile app that combines savings, investments, payments, and financial guidance into a single Shariah-compliant product. It currently has more than one million registered users and over $100 million in assets under management, with a target of $250 million in AUM by the end of 2026.
Editor’s take: Raising $100 million to enter markets where Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Al Rajhi already have digital products is either bold or reckless depending on how good the product actually is. The pitch is differentiated enough on paper. The GCC will be the real test of whether conversational AI banking solves a problem Gulf users actually feel.
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What is IMAN’s AI-powered Islamic banking platform?
Most banking apps hand you a dashboard and leave you to it. IMAN’s approach is different. The platform is designed to interact with users conversationally, reading behavioural and transaction data to anticipate what someone might need before they ask.
“The problem with banking is not access. It’s the way it was built. It was never designed to understand people,” said Rustam Rahmatov, Founder and Group CEO of IMAN Holdings.
Beyond the consumer product, IMAN is building a RegTech and AI banking layer that lets other financial institutions deploy Shariah-compliant, AI-driven products on its infrastructure. It is not just chasing users; it is positioning itself as a platform others can build on.
The company also embeds real-time Shariah validation into the product, showing users the compliance logic behind each transaction rather than burying it in fine print. Ethical finance is meant to be visible at the point of use, not something you have to take the bank’s word for.
Why the GCC, and why now
Islamic finance globally manages more than $4 trillion in assets. The GCC has a well-developed Islamic banking sector but has been notably slower than Southeast Asia to produce digital-native products for younger users. Smartphone penetration across the region is among the highest in the world, and a generation that handles most of its financial life on a phone wants products built for that reality, not converted from desktop banking.
There are 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide, and a persistent gap in accessible Shariah-compliant financial services. The UAE’s CBUAE Open Finance Framework and Saudi Arabia’s SAMA regulatory sandbox both provide structured entry points for fintechs seeking to meet local compliance requirements.
What $100 million is meant to do
Here;s how the funds will be used.
Getting into new markets costs more than people expect
The raise is earmarked for GCC market entry and platform development. That sounds straightforward, but market entry in the Gulf means regulatory approvals, local entity setup, Shariah board certifications, and in-country partnerships, and each of those takes time and money before a single user signs up.
The AUM target tells you how fast they plan to move
IMAN is currently managing over $100 million in assets. It wants $250 million by the end of 2026. That is a target that requires momentum, not a slow regional rollout. The $100 million raise is sized to match that pace.
Building infrastructure, not just acquiring users
With one million existing users and a working product, this round is less about proving viability and more about building the RegTech and compliance layer that institutional partners and regulators in new markets will want to see. Consumer apps scale on marketing spend. Infrastructure takes longer and costs more to get right.
Final Words
IMAN Holdings is entering the GCC at a point when the region’s appetite for digital financial products is growing faster than its existing supply of genuinely AI-native ones. The incumbents have scale and trust. IMAN has a product built differently from the ground up. Whether that gap is wide enough to matter to Gulf users is the question the next phase of growth will answer. For now, AI-powered Islamic banking has a well-funded new entrant, and the Gulf’s established players will have noticed.