The gap Qardus fills is easy to describe: a UK SME too small for an Islamic bank's corporate desk, unwilling to take a conventional loan, and needing working capital faster than any bank moves. Qardus, which describes itself as the UK's first ethical Sharia-compliant business financing platform, matches such businesses with high-net-worth and sophisticated investors, charging a pre-agreed arrangement fee plus a fixed profit rate instead of interest. All details verified against qardus.com, August 6, 2026.
Ready to compare halal options?
The two products
| Unsecured finance | Secured finance | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | GBP 25,000 to GBP 200,000 | GBP 150,000 to GBP 500,000 |
| Term | 6 to 36 months | Up to 5 years |
| Security | None | Existing business assets |
| Decision | 48 hours if approved | Same process |
| Funding | Typically within 2 working days of signing | Same |
The application is online with an in-house soft-search review that leaves no mark on your credit score. Eligibility is strict and clearly stated: UK-registered limited company or partnership, minimum three years of trading (no start-ups), stable cash flows, no outstanding CCJs, and operation in a Sharia-compliant sector. Qardus reports GBP 5.1 million deployed and a 40% repeat-client rate, with visible strength among healthcare and pharmacy SMEs.
How the halal structure works
Instead of interest accruing on a rate benchmark, the business's obligation is fixed at signing: a pre-agreed arrangement fee plus a profit rate set in advance. Borrowers are screened for compliant activity, with gambling, pork, alcohol and similar sectors excluded, and compliant structures are used on the investor side of the marketplace too. Oversight comes from a dedicated Sharia board led by Mufti Faraz Adam of Amanah Advisors, one of the most active scholars in UK Islamic fintech, with a downloadable Sharia compliance certificate on the site. One documentation gap worth naming: the product pages do not name the underlying contract. Commodity murabaha is the market-standard structure for this product shape, but Qardus does not say so on the crawled pages, and a business owner is entitled to ask exactly what they are signing.
The honest problems
- Pricing opacity: no profit-rate range, no representative example, nothing published. Cost is quoted per deal, so you cannot benchmark without applying.
- The three-years-trading rule shuts out start-ups entirely; this is not seed funding.
- The financing agreements sit outside FCA regulation, so no regulatory protections attach to the contract itself.
- On the secured tier, the security mechanics and how the charge interacts with the Islamic contract are not documented publicly.
How to approach a Qardus quote
Treat the process as evidence-gathering. Get the full cost breakdown in writing: arrangement fee, total profit, the all-in amount repayable, and the schedule. Ask which contract structure governs the deal and request the documentation naming it. Compare the total cost of finance against a conventional quote you have no intention of taking; the delta is the price of compliance, and knowing it beats guessing. Then weigh the speed premium honestly: 48-hour decisions and two-day funding have real commercial value when stock, tax bills or fit-outs will not wait for a bank.
Preparing an application that passes
Qardus's stated gates translate into a document checklist worth assembling before applying. Incorporation and trading history: the three-year minimum is checked against Companies House records, so recently restructured businesses should expect questions about continuity. Financials: stable cash flows means filed accounts and current management figures that show serviceable repayments at the quoted profit rate; a business plan for the funds strengthens marginal cases. Credit hygiene: the no-outstanding-CCJs rule is absolute per the published criteria, and the soft-search model means checking costs nothing. Sector: the halal screen covers your actual revenue streams, not your SIC code, so mixed businesses should disclose the mix upfront. The 48-hour decision clock starts when the file is complete, and pharmacy and healthcare applicants, Qardus's visible specialty, report the smoothest processing.
How the marketplace model affects borrowers
Qardus is a platform, not a balance-sheet lender: your financing is funded by high-net-worth and sophisticated investors who choose deals on the marketplace. Two borrower-side consequences follow. Funding speed after approval depends partly on investor appetite for your deal, which the 2-working-day typical figure reflects in normal conditions rather than guarantees. And the platform's incentives align with honest packaging: Qardus screens and presents your business to people deciding whether to fund it, so the information you provide becomes the deal's marketing. The GBP 5.1 million deployed and 40% repeat-client figures suggest the machine works at boutique scale; a business needing GBP 2 million will outgrow it, at which point the commercial property and Islamic bank routes take over.
Frequently asked questions
Is Qardus genuinely Shariah-compliant?
The governance is better documented than most UK alternative lenders: a named lead scholar (Mufti Faraz Adam, Amanah Advisors), borrower sector screening, and a downloadable compliance certificate. The missing piece is contract-level documentation on the public pages, which diligence at signing can close.
What does it cost?
Unpublished. A pre-agreed arrangement fee plus a fixed profit rate, quoted per deal based on the business's profile. The fixed-at-signing structure means no repricing risk during the term, unlike benchmark-linked facilities.
My business is under three years old. What are my options?
Qardus will decline you by rule. Realistic compliant routes for younger businesses are thinner: equity investment, supplier credit negotiated Islamically, and the wider options in our riba-free business financing guide.
Can I invest through Qardus rather than borrow?
The funding side serves high-net-worth and sophisticated investors who finance the deals; it is a restricted, high-risk activity comparable to the private credit products covered in our halal fixed income guide.
The verdict
For an established halal-sector SME needing GBP 25,000 to GBP 500,000 without interest, Qardus is the default answer in Britain, and largely for good reasons: clear eligibility, genuine speed, credible scholarship. Its weaknesses are transparency habits, not integrity: publish a rate range and name the contract, and the product would be as easy to recommend as it is to use. Until then, get everything in writing and compare hard. See all options on our business financing page.
What happens if my business struggles to repay?
The public pages do not document forbearance or default processes, which makes this a signing-stage question: ask in writing how arrears are handled, what charges apply, and, on the secured tier, exactly when security enforcement begins. Islamic structures constrain penalty mechanics, late charges typically route to charity rather than profit in compliant designs, but the specific contract governs, and you should hold it before you need it.
Compare providers in your state
See side-by-side comparisons of Shariah-compliant products, or let our matcher recommend the best options for your situation.
The bottom line
Qardus occupies a genuinely unserved position: the only dedicated Shariah-compliant marketplace for UK SME working capital, sized for the GBP 25,000 to GBP 250,000 tickets that Islamic banks' bespoke desks do not want and conventional fintechs serve only with interest. The costs of the position are visible, boutique scale, marketplace funding dynamics, and public pages that leave profit rates and default processes to the application stage. The mitigations are equally visible: soft-search checking costs nothing, the 48-hour decision clock is short, and the scholar-certified commodity murabaha structure is the market's standard. A qualifying business that needs compliant working capital has exactly one specialist to call, which makes the diligence questions in this guide the whole preparation. The wider compliant toolkit sits on our business financing page, verified August 6, 2026.