He saved $8k as a teen, but lost it in bad investments. Now he champions Islamic finance
SINGAPORE - Muhammad Ridhwaan Radzi's first lesson in investing came early in life at age 17, when he invested $1,000 in an Islamic fixed deposit with CIMB Bank.His interest in Islamic finance deepened as he began creating content, conducting research and organising community events on the subject in Singapore in 2023.«(I realised that) discussions around halal investing consistently drew the highest engagement, yet practical tools and access remained limited,» said Ridhwaan.This led him to start building RizqX in his final year at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where he was pursuing a business degree specialising in international trade and a minor in entrepreneurship. He graduated in 2023.Ridhwaan, now 30, co-founded Rizqx with a partner he met during national service, who is now an Oxford PhD candidate specialising in AI and machine learning. Their investment platform is designed to give Muslims in South-east Asia access to halal, or syariah-compliant, investment opportunities that are often fragmented, under-publicised or difficult to evaluate.