I would like to know if investing in Peer to Peer Lending for startups is Halal or not.
The platform is called Beehive and seems to be a UAE based entity with UK founders. They say they are Sharia compliant in the type of companies they fund, meaning if you choose the Sharia compliant portfolio you get to invest in only companies that conform with Sharia rules.
I get that and its great that they have such an option. I am doubtful though on the whole investment idea of theirs. The fact that they crowdfund a loan from an investor crowd and provide that to the company which gives back returns on that loan but isn’t this similar to Ribaa or interest? The whole idea seems to NOT be halal as far as I understand from their how we work page.
This is the How we work page: https://www.beehive.ae/how-it-works/
It would be great to see if there is a financial explanation on how they justify this as Sharia compliant. I have already signed up with them but stuck on whether I should fund or not due to this whole process question on the returns they say looking like Ribaa because they term their funds collected as a loan.
Would appreciate an explanation if possible
Thank you very much for the advice over here