From Tashkent to the World: Nurmukhammad Ismoilov Takes Halal Investing Global With Akinda

After building a Shariah-audited investment platform at home, the founder is now bringing Akinda to the United States and investors worldwide.

SAN FRANCISCO, October 2026 — Most founders test their idea in one market before going global. Nurmukhammad Ismoilov did it the hard way: he first built halal investing from the ground up in a market where it barely existed. Now he is taking what he learned to the world, starting with the United States.

Ismoilov is the founder and CEO of Akinda, a global halal investing platform that screens stocks for compliance with Islamic finance principles. This fall, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to lead Akinda’s US expansion.

Step one: proving it works at home

Ismoilov’s first goal was trust. In Uzbekistan, he founded the country’s first Shariah-based trading company to operate under a fatwa, a formal ruling from Islamic scholars. He also built Nurinvest, an investment platform and halal investing education community.

From the start, Nurinvest worked with a qualified Shariah advisor to make sure its business met Islamic finance standards. In 2025, the company completed a Shariah audit, which reviewed its business and investment activity and confirmed that it was Shariah-compliant. Its Shariah advisor was also nominated for Best Shariah Advisor in Central Asia by AlHuda.

“In Islamic finance, trust is everything,” Ismoilov says. “People need to know that a scholar has reviewed the process, not just a marketing team. We built that discipline into the company from day one.”

The approach paid off. In 2024, Nurinvest won the Most Innovative Investment Platform 2024 – Uzbekistan award at the Wealth & Finance Private Equity and Venture Capital Awards. Ismoilov’s finance book, Million Daromad, sold more than 8,000 copies, and his investing content now reaches around 400,000 followers.

Step two: a product built for the world

Nurinvest showed Ismoilov that the need was much bigger than one country. Muslim investors everywhere were asking the same question: which stocks can I buy? So he built Akinda to answer it at global scale.

Akinda screens more than 15,000 stocks across the US, Canada and the UK against AAOIFI Shariah Standard No. 21, the most widely used standard in Islamic finance. Users get a clear verdict on each company, a dividend purification calculator and the ability to screen the portfolios they already hold with their brokers.

The platform already has a global audience. Around 10,000 registered users and about 20,000 monthly visitors come from the US, UK, Canada, South Korea, Central Asia and the Middle East, all without paid advertising. Akinda also licenses its screening technology to businesses through an API, with clients that include a company in Texas.

Step three: the United States

The US is the world’s largest retail investing market and home to a fast-growing community of faith-conscious and values-driven investors. That makes it the natural next stop for Akinda.

In the Bay Area, Akinda has joined the Alchemist & Silkroad Innovation Residency. Ismoilov also attended TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and has met with Silicon Valley investors, including investors who backed Robinhood at an early stage.

Akinda is now in partnership talks with US brokerage firms. The goal is to let American investors screen a stock and invest in it in one place.

“We’re taking the same standard of trust we built at home and making it available to anyone, anywhere,” Ismoilov says. “Halal investing shouldn’t depend on where you live.”

Backed for the journey

Akinda has been supported by Plug and Play, Alchemist Accelerator, Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan, and has received a Google for Startups grant. It has also been featured on Yahoo Finance and AP News.

Investors around the world can explore the platform at akinda.io.

About Akinda: Akinda is a halal and ethical stock research platform that screens global equities against AAOIFI Shariah Standard No. 21. Founded in 2023 by Nurmukhammad Ismoilov, Akinda helps retail investors and businesses find investments that match their values. Learn more at akinda.io.

Media contact: Nurmukhammad Ismoilov, Founder & CEO — [email protected]