Russia’s government-controlled financial giant Sberbank is going to acquire a 25% stake in PayZakat, the bank stated, without disclosing the financial details of the deal.
Moscow-based startup has developed a payment platform to help Muslim users collect obligatory and voluntary alms. With the help of PayZakat’s bots in social networks, Muslim users can calculate their payments (Sadaqah, Zakat, Zakat al-Fitr, and Zakat al-Adha) and distribute them among charity foundations. They may also pick up projects for their alms to be given to, and receive updates via PayZakat.
In 2018, PayZakat was among the winners of the bank’s Sber#Up accelerator program that was meant to encourage innovative business ideas among Sberbank’s personnel. At that time, the payment startup received a capital injection of RUR 5 mio rubles ($75K) from the bank. PayZakat was officially registered in October 2018. Its majority share (67.5%) is owned by Behnam Gurbanzada, a counselor to the deputy chairman of Sberbank’s board.
According to Sberbank, Zakat global collections are currently estimated at above $500 bln per annum, with most of the alms being collected in cash. Since there are about 1.8 bln Muslims on the globe, including 80 mio living in Russia and neighboring countries, the bank believes PayZakat has good chances to become a global payment system for alms collection.