Tech reinvent as Hejaz teases 'Wahda' superapp launch

When Hakan Ozyon stopped thinking of Hejaz as an Islamic financial services company and started thinking of it as an innovator powered by technology and artificial intelligence, a new realm of the possible beckoned. After the success of its Halal Money app providing Australian Muslims with Sharia-compliant financial products, the CEO started thinking bigger; now the company is weeks away from launching its Wahda super-app. The market? More than two billion Muslims that Ozyon said are crying out for one platform that does it all.

"We asked, what digital platforms have the Muslims got currently? And it turned out there was literally nothing. No global institution, no global platform. They literally had zero," he started.

Ozyon explained that after considerable success in Islamic financial services not only in Australia but internationally, Hejaz evolved its perspective of how it creates value. "Over the last two, two and a half years, we've jumped into the tech space. Now, believe it or not, we regard ourselves as a tech business rather than a financial company. We see financial products and services as a vertical amongst our technology platforms, and have dramatically increased the number of programmers, developers and software engineers in our head counts, with even an AI subdivision."

He described the soon-to–launch Wahda as 'a global super app' (Wahda is the Arabic word for 'one' or 'unity').

After getting the idea in mind, Ozyon said he looked both east and west for inspiration. "I looked at Western societies, the platforms and the institutions, and they've got many. And then I went to China for the last five, six years to study the Chinese platforms and how those platforms cater to their own people, WeChat especially."

Two immediate questions occurred. The first, is Wahda for Muslims only? And, what kind of services will Wahda offer?

Ozyon's reply to the first is that there are, under the Islamic faith, moral standards and codes which are typically seen in the broader community as 'Halal'; those same principles are baked into the Halal Money app (and all Hejaz financial services). Similarly, those principles are baked into Wahda. "So, no, the services aren't reserved for Muslims specifically, but they are reserved for anyone who is willing to accept those principles," he explained. "It's a bit like a Halal restaurant; anyone is welcome, and you'll get food that looks and tastes much like food in other restaurants, but the underlying way it is prepared differs."

On the services that will be available through the platform, Ozyon said Wahda has 'around 300' planned, and will launch with collaboration services (chat and video), social media, community tools like maps and locations, and an AI service called 'AI Imam' providing faith-based services.

The difference, he explained, again lies in the Halal underpinnings: "It's not connected to the internet, where there's a lot of inaccurate or inappropriate content. Instead, it's connected to a properly authenticated database that we've created."

Notably, he didn't mention the financial services on which Hejaz has built its global reputation as part of the launch services. "That's because Wahda is a platform, first, and our goal is providing people with immediate services. Things like financial products and a lot more, will follow."

His ambition for Wahda is substantial, with a total addressable market of literal billions of people all around the world. "We actually think we can get the quickest one million downloads in the history of launching any app, so we're very excited about this right now," he confirmed. "And of course, I'm not talking about Australia, where the Muslim community is quite small, but globally."

Moreover, Ozyon said indications are that demand is strong and real. "If you're a community of that size and you've never had a platform of your own, you would get excited, especially with the functions we've built. We just launched the waiting list, and the amount of interest is insane, and we've even got top tier famous people in the Muslim world reaching out."

Ozyon noted that content creators are a key demographic for Wahda, as they not only act as drawcards for other users, but also provide 'stress testing' of the app and its functionality and features. He said already some 1,000 content creators are on board, while further details on collaborators, launch markets, partnerships, and phased user access will be available in the lead-up to a planned August global launch.