Leveraging on advantages offered by the ‘little brother’

Rising Islamic asset managers typically seek to leverage on more established outfits – including the use of feeder funds or forging ‘little brother’ cooperations. But Investcorp flipped the script in January 2026, by partnering with smaller real estate investment platform Stake.

Handling a total AuM of over US$60 billion, Investcorp dwarfs Stake – which reported 2025’s total transactions of AED420 million (US$114.4 million) in UAE and SAR357 million (US$95.2 million) in Saudi Arabia.

When the Investcorp Wealth app was launched on the 21^st January 2025, opening access to new, qualified investors, Projects and Business Management Head Yasser Al Khaja then said in-house clients had already conducted over US$350 million worth of investments via this channel.

What extra advantage does it gain with the 28^th January 2026 distribution deal with Stake, which Investcorp said represents a complementary expansion of the global digital platform strategy through a third‑party fintech platform?

Noting that bigger firms are geared more to meeting institutional needs, rather than individuals, the underlying push factors arise from a generational shift’s changing attitudes, said Basel Abushaar, founder of Swedish real estate Shariah tokenization platform Skargard.

“Younger investors are increasingly shifting toward the real economy and tangible investment deals rather than abstract financial products. Transparency is now a non-negotiable factor. The new generation wants control over their investments and their money.”

Another recognition is the need to gain traction among the next generation of affluent investors, whose net worth and disposable income haven’t reached stratospheric levels yet. With legacy systems, bigger firms cannot easily cater to the needs of retail investors.

“Fintech platforms lower entry barriers through fractional ownership and fully digital onboarding. They can also have faster product launches and quicker adaptation to regulation as they have more flexible structuring compared to large institutions with slower internal processes and layered governance.”

American real estate Shariah tokenization platform EdificeX CEO Souhayl Maronesy said the survival mindset of fintechs play a crucial role in strategy execution and outreach to secure new investors.

“Our focus is narrow. Our main and only concern is to make sure we execute to reach many people and succeed. For bigger firms, securing retail investors may not be their main business focus or an important strategy to give too much emphasis.”

For comparison, the Investcorp Wealth app on both Apple App Store and the Google Play Store had yet to breach 10,000 downloads in 12 months. Meanwhile, Stake boasts of over two million app subscribers.

A critical point is the social benefit aspect of Shariah investments that appeal to the younger generation. Souhayl said that for home purchases, it is the lender – like banks – that primarily benefits while the homeowner carries most of the long-term financial burden and risk.

The fintech tokenization approach allows capital distribution of value instead of concentrating it within traditional lending institutions. “Investors earn returns from actual rental income and property appreciation, while families gain a realistic path to ownership without long-term debt.”

As investors are not locked into a single large property purchase, they can diversify across multiple properties and adjust their exposures via tokenized ownership and platform trading – which introduces liquidity that traditional real estate lacks.

Optimistic about this evolution continuing to be a major driver of Islamic real estate tokenization initiatives, Souhayl cited a Farsi saying that “drop after drop… long and behold it is a sea.”