All-cash Shariah realty fund Deenvest seeks to remake American property investing  

Deenvest Capital is capitalizing on the concept that the property investment market, historically fueled by debt and leverage, is ready for something entirely different: a Shariah compliant model that operates with zero debt, zero gearing and zero apologies.

Founded by Sirai Farah and Yamu Camara in the US city of Atlanta in Georgia, Deenvest’s investors are a diverse group of accredited individuals – including dentists, corporate professionals and small business owners.

What one might find surprising is that a significant portion of the clientele is non-Muslim. But the firm’s founders say this isn’t necessarily jarring because almost every investor loves the idea of a fund without gearing – since it’ll have the best chance of surviving a downturn as there are no borrowings to service.

“We talked to quite a few non-Muslims who are like, ‘Oh, this is much safer’,” Sirai shared with IFN Investor. Yamu recalled another investor of a different faith saying Deenvest’s debt-free model validated the “trustworthy” element in Islamic finance. “That was really nice to hear.”

Such broad appeal has allowed Sirai and Yamu to democratize their real estate offering of passive income opportunity to a wide swath of people, targeting “moms and pops” investors to high-net-worth individuals.

The risk-averse, debt-free philosophy also enables them to compete more efficiently against conventional real estate investment funds with completely opposite strategies – which were among those badly affected during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.

Conventional funds typically thrive on borrowing, leveraging investor money to acquire more properties and, in theory, generate outsized returns. But their model is not without its risks. When the market turns, debt service becomes a burden, and the fund’s very existence can be threatened.

A loan-free model that radically mitigates risk

Sirai, having run 320 multi-family units in a prior fund with heavy leveraging, learned firsthand the pitfalls of such gearing, walking away from that to launch Deenvest. “I got rid of those deals because they were using [loans],” she said. “I don’t want anything to do with loans anymore.”

The Deenvest strategy is simple yet radical. It focuses on acquiring B-class multi-family properties of at least 100 units in markets with strong fundamentals like population growth and job creation. By paying all-cash, it bypasses the complexities and risks of traditional financing, including fluctuating interest rates and lender approvals.

This approach gives it a competitive edge: offering sellers certainty of closing and a faster timeline, which is a powerful incentive in today's volatile lending environment. As a result, it can secure deals even when competing against debt-leveraged real estate buyers offering higher purchase prices.

“Because cash is king, sellers are willing to give us discounted deals, because we have certainty of close,” explained Sirai.

Investors get paid first, actually twice before fund

When it comes to returns, Deenvest operates on a clear and investor-friendly model. The fund promises investors an 8% preferred annual return, with any excess profit split 75% for investors and 25% for the fund's managers.

This profit-sharing structure ensures that Sirai and Yamu are “perfectly aligned” with their investors. As Yamu explained, “we don’t even get paid until they get paid twice”.

To provide transparency, Deenvest even developed a calculator to show potential investors exactly how much they could expect to earn monthly based on their investment. For a US$100,000 investment, the fund projects a total monthly return of about US$1,104, before factoring in potential rent increases or other income-boosting strategies.

The fund’s strategy for mitigating risk is as straightforward as its business model. By buying properties that already have a high occupancy rate and are generating cash flow, they can provide immediate distributions to investors without having to wait for renovations or new tenants.

Bad market? Zero-gearing allows Deenvest to ride it out

In a market downturn, their lack of debt service allows them to simply hold the property until conditions improve, a luxury that highly leveraged funds do not have. "We don't have to worry about interest rate fluctuations and refinancing and so on," Sirai said.

The team also stress-tests every potential deal, evaluating it under more conservative assumptions to ensure it can withstand higher expenses or slower rent growth.

Launched in August 2025, Deenvest raised within weeks around US$3 million from approximately 20 investors. While its long-term target of US$10 billion may seem audacious, the founders are confident in their ability to scale.

They are focused on content creation to get their message out, building relationships with brokers to ensure a strong pipeline of deals and basking in their reputation and competitive advantage as the "only all-cash Halal money fund in the US,” said  Sirai.

In their quest to remake American property investing, they are also doing what they can to convince people to steer clear of easy-first-but-painful-later-loans.

“Every day I'm posting about ‘the five ways you can do this’ to ‘avoid this’,” says Yamu, a data-scientist-turned-property-manager. “That, and the webinars we do, have helped a lot. We've been putting the word out even before the fund was formed because education is a big part of this.”