Fund certification, portfolio screening and annual audit, the complete lifecycle, for funds investing Islamic capital into early-stage companies.
The problem
Certifying a venture fund is straightforward enough. The fund's own structure, its management fee, its carry and its investor agreements can all be made compliant on paper and then stay that way for years without difficulty.
The difficulty is the portfolio. Early-stage companies pivot, take on conventional debt to bridge a round, add revenue lines nobody modelled, and get acquired by acquirers the fund would never have backed. A fund certified once and never reviewed is a fund whose compliance is a historical fact.
A pivot
The business model the fund certified no longer applies
A bridge round
Conventional debt taken on to close a gap
A new revenue line
Added after the last review, never modelled
An acquirer
The fund would never have backed directly
What we do
The fund vehicle, the management arrangement, carry, and the treatment of committed but undrawn capital.
Limited partnership agreement, subscription documents, side letters and the investment agreements used with portfolio companies.
How the fund engages investors and how it engages startups, reviewed as a process, not only as documents.
Every company screened before funding, against business activity, financing structure and revenue mix.
Portfolio companies reviewed as they raise, pivot and scale.
Of the fund and of the portfolio.
Why ADL
Our team pairs certified Muftis holding AAOIFI qualifications with people who understand code, systems and product architecture. We hold Malaysia Digital Status from the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, a technology credential, held by a Shariah advisory firm. Where there is an app, we go into it. Where there is a core banking system, we review the configuration.
Registered Shariah Adviser with the Securities Commission Malaysia and with Labuan Financial Services Authority.
We work primarily against AAOIFI standards and reconcile with the applicable local regime. An opinion grounded in AAOIFI travels across borders.
Beyond applying Islamic finance standards, our team has been commissioned by a standard-setting body: research towards a governance standard, participation in the drafting of a preliminary standard, and a series of training assignments.
Auditing against another adviser's pronouncement is ordinary work for us, as is being audited by another firm. Independence is the point of the exercise.
We work in jurisdictions with mature Islamic finance regulation and in markets with none at all, where the structure has to satisfy Shariah while operating entirely within a conventional rulebook.
Best Shariah Advisory in Islamic Asset Management, presented in Jeddah in February 2026.
Members of our team hold Shariah board and committee seats across the institutions we serve, so our advisory work is informed by governance experience, not only by external review.
How we hold ourselves
Our measure of a good year is not only revenue. It is whether we helped one more business get to halal. That is why we will take a call from a founder at ideation stage, and why our pricing bends to what a client can actually carry. We would rather a small platform get its structure right at the start than be priced out and get it wrong at scale.
A business built on an Islamic label still has to be a good business. Sound fundamentals, capable people, honest disclosure, and a high standard of compliance with local regulation, because that is what protects the customer and the investor. Shariah compliance sits on top of that foundation. It is not a substitute for it, and we will say so if we see it being treated as one.
The Lifecycle
Compliance is a state you maintain rather than a certificate you obtain, and the audit cycle is how you maintain it.
We understand the fund structure and the investment strategy before we quote.
Scope, timeline and fee agreed, agreement signed.
The deep stage: the limited partnership agreement, the subscription documents, side letters and the investment agreements used with portfolio companies.
Findings returned and worked through with the fund manager; the structure is adjusted.
Issued by a certified Mufti.
Issued under a reference any counterparty can verify independently.
For a venture fund the cycle runs for as long as it is investing: the fund and its portfolio are re-tested every year, and every time a portfolio company raises, pivots or scales.
We commit to two to four weeks for a first pronouncement. In practice it often runs longer, and in our experience the reason is the round trip rather than the review. We raise amendments, and your product and engineering teams need time to work through them. We would rather set that expectation now than surprise you in week three.
Engagements are scoped and priced individually. We have worked with funds raising their first close and with funds several vintages into deploying capital. One size does not fit all. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you what it takes.
Evidence
An Islamic venture capital fundFund certified; all agreements and the investor and startup engagement methodology reviewed; every portfolio startup screened before funding; ongoing Shariah audit of both the fund and its portfolio.
Questions
It depends on what changed and whether it can be remediated. Where it cannot, the fund needs a defined path, divestment terms, income purification, and disclosure to LPs. That path should be written into the fund documents before it is needed.
Before. Screening after investment tells you what you should not have done.
Before the first close. A structure found not to work after capital has been drawn is far more expensive to fix than one caught at term-sheet stage.
A pronouncement is the scholarly ruling, the reasoned opinion that a fund, as described, complies. A certification is the instrument that evidences it, carrying a reference your counterparties can check. The pronouncement is the judgment; the certificate is the proof.
Both. The fund is certified once; each portfolio company is screened before it receives funding, and reviewed again as it raises, pivots or scales.
Yes, typically. Ongoing screening and annual audit are how the fund's compliance stays a current fact rather than a historical one.
Our certification confirms Shariah compliance. It is not an assessment of whether a business is viable, whether its financials are sound, or whether the people running it can execute. Look at both questions, and do your own due diligence on the second. Every ADL certificate carries a reference you can check independently.
Book a consultation, whether you are raising your first close or several vintages in. We will tell you at the first meeting whether the structure holds.