From Malaysia to the Middle East
- An elderly man sat in a mosque in Malaysia, awaiting prayer time. He opens a Muslim app on his phone, and unexpectedly, a bikini-clad woman in an intrusive ad shows up. Embarrassed, he immediately hid his phone.
- Many of us are no stranger to these pesky pop-up ads, a feature we tolerate to use the free version of the app. Mohd Izzairi Yamin, having witnessed the unfortunate incident, decided the solution was to create a premium Muslim app that’s free to use.
- Fast forward to today, 500-backed Muslim lifestyle app TheNoor has gone international, with locations in Turkey, Indonesia, and soon, Saudi Arabia. The team also recently opened their US$2.5M Series A fundraising round.
- TheNoor’s growth has been possible thanks to a series of strategic connections. When Izzairi ran into a problem with user acquisition in 2019, he shared it with Co-founder Ahmad Tajuddin Idris, who happens to be a close friend of Noor Neelofa Mohd Noor (Neelofa), an actress, TV host, commercial model, and an entrepreneur.
- Between her busy schedule and the pandemic, the duo was only able to meet with her half a year later, but the wait was worth it. She immediately came onboard with the idea and team, sharing, “I wanted to create something that could positively impact Muslim lives around the world.”
- They launched the app in January 2021, with downloads reaching 160,000 just on the first day. TheNoor was also the #1 app for at least seven days, and was in the Top 10 across categories for 3.5 months.
- 500 Global’s Managing Partner Khailee Ng helped fuel TheNoor’s expansion. He introduced the team to Prince Saud bin Khalid Al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who is also the Deputy Governor of Madinah, accelerating their expansion plans into the kingdom.
- Ultimately, TheNoor aims to be an app that eases the daily lives of Muslims. The app offers features like a digital Quran, daily hadiths and prayers, Islamic lectures, and a Qibla locator. Users can even learn Arabic and increase their Islamic knowledge through recorded talks.
- They also partnered with insurance company Zurich Malaysia to develop a takaful plan that provides personal accident coverage of up to RM15,000 at RM12 a year.
- Users can easily contribute zakat and donations to partnering NGOs from across the world, as well as do worldwide money transfers, will writing, and even shop on an ecommerce platform.
- An artificial intelligence (AI) checker built into the app can detect and correct a user’s recitations of the Quranic verses. “Right now, we’re in the process of building other AI features in the app,” Izzairi added.
- Read the full feature on Vulcan Post.
