Startup Profile

• Founded: 2023

• Core solution: Instant, Sharia-compliant consumer financing delivered through a fully digital, end-to-end mobile app

• Markets served: Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

• Total Funding Received: USD 22 million

• Growth Outlook: FLOOSS plans include a proposed issuance of a securitization sukuk of up to USD 10 million, subject to the Central Bank of Bahrain approval, alongside regional expansion supported by recent funding

What does FLOOSS do?

FLOOSS is a consumer financing app, licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain and the Saudi Central Bank, and is the first in Bahrain to offer instant, Sharia-compliant consumer financing through a fully digital, end-to-end mobile app. Initially focused on removing the slowest elements of small-ticket lending, particularly manual income checks and document back-and-forth, the app embeds application, verification, consent, and decisioning into a single structured journey, allowing customers to complete the full lending process in one place.

How was FLOOSS built?

FLOOSS was built to address a clear gap in consumer lending: approval journeys that remained slow and document-heavy despite serving small, time-sensitive needs. The company set out to offer consumer financing through a mobile-first flow that could be approved in minutes, while operating within the perimeter of a licensed financing company and positioning the product as instant Sharia-compliant financing.

Its key differentiators revolved around:

• Addressing verification as the main bottleneck, where applications often slow down or drop off due to income and affordability checks.

• Replacing documents with consented data, using real-time income verification via open banking APIs instead of manual salary certificates.

• Building on existing trust rails, by implementing a centralized open banking authentication and consent journey via BenefitPay.

• Treating Sharia compliance as a core market requirement, positioning the product as digital credit aligned with Islamic finance principles rather than a marketing label. 

How did the ecosystem enable FLOOSS’s growth?

Bahrain offers two foundational enablers for FLOOSS’s model: a clear regulatory perimeter for digital credit and national financial infrastructure that supports fast, controlled verification and consent. As the founder Fawaz Ghazal puts it, “What stood out in Bahrain was how quickly we could build, test, & iterate in a regulated environment, supported by strong financial infrastructure & institutional coordination. That discipline became the foundation we carried into Saudi Arabia through a SAMA-supervised route, helping us scale responsibly across the region.”

Launching as a financing company under the CBB allowed the product to be built around supervised requirements from the outset, making rapid approvals credible for a regulated lender rather than a marketing claim. That same regulatory perimeter also enabled the product to evolve over time, with changes to limits, tenors, and funding structures introduced within an established supervisory framework.

Financial infrastructure completed the model. Bahrain’s open-banking framework enabled data-based consent, while strong institutional coordination translated ecosystem access into faster iteration, end-to-end testing, and operational tightening, capabilities that later supported expansion into Saudi Arabia through a Saudi Central Bank–supervised route.

Beyond regulation and infrastructure, the ecosystem also supported outward connectivity, with Tamkeen contributing to international exposure through global venues, expanding access to networks, partnerships, and regional ecosystems.

The Bottom Line

FLOOSS was built to address a familiar gap in consumer finance: lending requirements designed for large loans applied to small, time-sensitive needs. The company responded with a regulated, instant, Sharia-compliant flow, making speed durable by redesigning the two steps that most often slow lending, income verification and customer consent. Supported by the CBB’s licensing perimeter and Bahrain’s open-banking infrastructure, FLOOSS was able to test, refine, and repeat the model, then apply the same regulatory discipline in Saudi Arabia through a SAMA-supervised route. Taken together, this combination of regulation-first design, infrastructure-enabled execution, and cross-market portability positions FLOOSS to scale its model in a controlled and sustainable manner.