Wafr Launches WafrChain to Revolutionize Shariah-Compliant Sukuk via Blockchain

Fintech startup Wafr has secured pre-seed funding and launched WafrChain, a blockchain-based platform for Shariah-compliant sukuk tokenisation. By digitising the complex, multi-party lifecycle of Islamic bonds, the firm aims to reduce the reconciliation errors and lengthy issuance times that have historically hindered the growth of ethical, cross-border financial instruments.

What was announced

Wafr has officially launched WafrChain, its first product designed to bring Shariah-compliant assets on-chain. The platform addresses the inherent complexity of sukuk issuances, which typically involve up to eight distinct parties—including the issuer, the trustee, arrangers, the Shariah board, custodians, the paying agent, distributors, and investors. Currently, each of these entities maintains its own record of the same instrument, leading to a fragmented system where every transfer, profit payment, and corporate action must be manually re-keyed and reconciled. This process often results in issuances taking many months, or even over a year, to reach the market.

WafrChain operates as a private, permissioned blockchain that establishes a single, shared record for all participants. Key instrument terms such as unit price, maturity, and profit schedules are recorded on-chain. The platform also integrates the approval process of an issuer’s own Shariah board before distribution begins, while Wafr’s own Shariah board works with each issuer to confirm that the structure is compliant. To automate the operational side of the instrument, Wafr uses smart contracts to route profit payments directly to institutional buyers and distributors.

The pre-seed funding round includes participation from individual investors including Coen Jonker, co-founder of Tyme Group, and Neal Cross, co-founder of PictureWealth. The founding team brings significant institutional experience; CEO Mahmoud Bouchelif previously founded LeanTech SG, a profitable business with seven-figure revenue, and has spent a decade advising banking leaders in the GCC. CPO Anthony Murphy has led digital product launches at major institutions including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, AMP, and Macquarie Bank.

"Islamic finance can bring abundance to people, businesses and economies, yet access to services that reflect its principles remains uneven. We are building Wafr for everyone who believes finance should be fair, transparent and ethical, whatever their faith. WafrChain is our starting point, giving institutions a foundation for bringing Shariah-compliant assets on-chain while we develop the services people need to manage their financial lives across borders."

Mahmoud Bouchelif, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wafr

The companies involved

Wafr is a financial technology company focused on building a global Islamic financial platform. Headed by Mahmoud Bouchelif and Anthony Murphy, the firm seeks to modernise Shariah-compliant services through distributed ledger technology. The company’s initial focus on sukuk tokenisation targets a specific bottleneck in the Islamic finance market where manual processes and high costs remain prevalent. By providing a foundation for on-chain assets, Wafr intends to make ethical financial services more accessible to a global audience, regardless of faith.

The startup is backed by investors with deep roots in digital banking and wealth management. Coen Jonker is the Founder and CEO of Tyme Group, which operates TymeBank, a prominent digital bank in South Africa and the Philippines known for its rapid growth and cloud-native infrastructure. Neal Cross is a Co-Founder of PictureWealth, an Australian-based wealth fintech. Cross previously served as the Chief Innovation Officer at DBS Bank, where he was instrumental in the bank's digital transformation and its recognition as a global leader in digital banking. These connections suggest a strong emphasis on applying proven digital banking and innovation frameworks to the Shariah-compliant sector, moving beyond traditional banking models to reach a global Muslim audience through scalable technology.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously tracked the progress of Wafr’s investors within the broader fintech ecosystem. In early 2022, we reported that PictureWealth raises AUD$14 million and hires CEO, a significant milestone for the wealth management platform co-founded by Neal Cross. This prior coverage highlighted the growing appetite for digital-first wealth solutions in the Asia-Pacific region. The involvement of Cross and other high-profile banking executives in Wafr’s pre-seed round underscores a continuing trend of established fintech leaders pivoting their expertise toward niche, high-growth sectors like Islamic finance, where the potential for digital disruption remains high but largely untapped by Western-centric platforms.

What this means

The tokenisation of sukuk represents a significant shift for Islamic finance, a sector often criticised for its slow adoption of automation. By moving these instruments onto a permissioned blockchain, Wafr is challenging the traditional role of intermediaries who have long profited from the friction of manual reconciliation. This move puts pressure on legacy custodians and paying agents to modernise or risk being bypassed by more efficient, smart-contract-driven alternatives. The broader question for the industry is whether institutional appetite for on-chain assets will overcome the regulatory hurdles inherent in cross-border Shariah compliance, but the entry of seasoned digital banking veterans suggests a serious attempt to institutionalise blockchain within this $3 trillion market.