Shariah-screened investing, zakat and purification maths in one Indian app
TL;DR Crescentvest is an investing app for Muslim households who want their savings to follow Shariah rules. It screens stocks and mutual funds, lets users invest through SEBI-registered routes, and works out the zakat due and the small share of income to give away for purification. Users pay a yearly subscription.
Muslims were 14.2% of India's population at the 2011 Census[1]. Many avoid interest, which rules out fixed deposits, debt funds and most bank savings products, and so a good chunk of money sits idle in cash, gold or property.
When the BSE launched its Sharia 50 index in 2010, the figures quoted were a credit-deposit ratio for Muslims of 47% against a national 74%, with nearly half excluded from formal finance[2]. Those are old numbers, but no newer public figure has replaced them.
The tools haven't caught up either. A 2026 study of Shariah investing in Indian markets lists low investor awareness and few diversified compliant products as the main barriers[3]. So what does a household do when it wants to check a stock, a fund or its zakat? It asks a cleric, a family chat group and a spreadsheet.
First, the regulatory bit - Crescentvest gives investment information and execution through SEBI-registered routes. It is not a bank. It takes no deposits and gives no loans, and since named-stock screening and personal advice need the right SEBI registration, confirm the structure with a securities lawyer.
The app screens every listed stock against a published method covering business activity, debt to assets and interest income, and it shows exactly why a company passes or fails. It lists the Shariah mutual funds already on offer, such as the funds benchmarked to the BSE 500 Shariah index[4], and lets users start a SIP through a distribution licence. For each holding it works out the share of dividend income to give away. At year end it builds a zakat statement across stocks, funds, gold and cash. A board of scholars signs off the method every year and its notes are public.
The original version of this idea pitched an AI-powered Islamic digital bank. I found no RBI licence route for an interest-free bank in India, so a bank is off the table. Investing is where you can legally build a compliant product today.
The user is a salaried or business-owning Muslim household, usually in a metro or a tier-2 city with a large community. The test price is a yearly subscription in the low thousands of rupees, which is my assumption. The nearest benchmark is an Indian Shariah screener app with premium plans at US$11.99 a year, about ₹1,160[5]. Commissions on fund SIPs are a second income line if you pick the distributor route over fee-only advice.
Shariah-screened funds are still small in India, but the plumbing is in place - Shariah indices to benchmark against[4], online SIPs and a pool of registered advisers to partner with or hire from. SEBI's register listed 1,057 investment advisers in October 2026[6]. The DPDP Rules notified in November 2025 spell out what consent you need before holding sensitive preferences such as religious practice[7].
Nobody publishes a figure for Shariah-compliant retail investing in India. The narrowest number I found is one Shariah equity fund with month-end assets of ₹441.65 Cr[4].
That's small for a 14.2% population share[1]. It points to either weak demand or weak distribution, and your validation has to tell those two apart.
One Indian screener app checks NSE and BSE stocks on six criteria, with watchlists and lessons[5]. An ethical-investing advisory added a Shariah compliance checker in 2024[8]. A few fund houses run Shariah equity schemes[4]. Global Islamic investing apps serve Muslim investors abroad.
The gap in India is one product that screens, executes, works out purification and zakat, and explains its rulings in plain Hindi and Urdu as well as English.
| Difficulty | Moderate (39/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹60 L–1.1 Cr |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The software is ordinary. The hard parts are getting the SEBI registrations in the right order, keeping a scholar board whose rulings users trust, and updating financial ratios for every listed company each quarter. Trust builds slowly too, so expect months of in-person sessions before word of mouth carries you.
Yes, this needs SEBI registration before you screen named stocks or touch anyone's money. Which one depends on each feature.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI make a Shariah ruling or a personal investment call. The scholar board signs off the method and a registered adviser handles advice.
Want to work out the AI layer for Crescentvest? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I like this one, but only in the right hands. It suits a founder with SEBI compliance experience and real standing in the community, ideally with a scholar as co-founder. If you want to launch a "halal bank" brand then this isn't it.
Prove one thing first - that 500 people pay for a year before you build execution.
Plan for roughly ₹60 L–1.1 Cr, with a good share going to SEBI compliance, the scholar board and the screening data rather than the app itself.
Yes. Personal advice needs SEBI investment adviser registration, publishing stock lists may need research analyst registration and SIP commissions need distributor registration. Get a securities lawyer to map each feature.
Yes, and global Islamic investing apps already do this abroad. You'd need your own market's securities licences and a scholar board your users trust.
The free Crescentvest validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the SEBI and data-protection checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for households, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Crescentvest or something close to it? The make-or-break work is choosing the right SEBI registration and a scholar board users trust, and that's exactly the kind of thing I help founders with. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.