Source: Arabian Business
It comes months after Mal raised $230m in a seed funding round, which the company said was the largest fintech seed raise in Middle East and Africa history.
Abu Dhabi-based fintech startup Mal has received in-principle approval from the UAE Central Bank (CBUAE) to establish what it describes as the world’s first AI-native Islamic digital bank, marking a major milestone for the country’s rapidly expanding fintech sector.
The approval follows a rigorous regulatory review process and positions Mal to move forward with plans to launch a fully licensed Shariah-compliant banking platform headquartered in the UAE.
The development comes months after Mal raised $230 million (AED844 million) in a seed funding round, which the company said was the largest fintech seed raise in Middle East and Africa history.
The capital injection makes Mal one of the region’s most well-capitalised new banking entrants as competition intensifies in the Gulf’s digital banking market.
The UAE has emerged as one of the region’s leading fintech hubs in recent years, driven by a digitally connected population, government-backed innovation strategies, and regulatory reforms designed to attract financial technology firms and digital asset companies.
Mal said its banking platform will sit within a wider financial ecosystem spanning digital banking, payments, wealth management and embedded finance solutions, with a focus on serving the global Islamic finance industry, currently estimated at more than $7 trillion.
Abdallah Abu-Sheikh, Founder and CEO of Mal, said the approval represents a significant endorsement from regulators as the company prepares for launch.
“We are extremely thrilled by the trust of the Central Bank to give us our in-principle approval for a banking license,” Abu-Sheikh told Arabian Business.
“We are committed to working hard to launch the world’s leading Islamic digital bank from the UAE with a mission rooted in ethical finance.”
Speaking about the company’s broader ambitions, Abu-Sheikh said Mal aims to redefine Islamic banking through artificial intelligence and modern infrastructure rather than treating Shariah finance as a niche offering.
“The Islamic finance market represents $7 trillion in opportunity, and until now nobody has approached it with truly modern technology,” he said. “That’s not a niche, that’s a category waiting to be built.”
Founded in 2025 and headquartered in Abu Dhabi, Mal describes itself as an AI-native financial services group focused on building ethical and values-driven banking products for Muslims and underbanked communities globally. The company says its platform combines regulatory compliance with AI-led personalisation to create more accessible and efficient financial products.
Abu-Sheikh added that the company intends to prioritise regulatory clarity and infrastructure before accelerating expansion.
“The lesson I carry into Mal is to get the regulatory foundation right, get the technology architecture right, then scale,” he said.
