Many years ago, I was a (relatively) young equity research associate covering listed banks at Goldman Sachs when I had the chance to visit a small, yet incredibly unique bank in a quiet town in Sweden called JAK Bank. This bank claimed to charge no interest, instead using offset accounts with a savings points system to track balances.
“The founders of JAK approached the problem from first principles: if you have inherited substantial sum of money, you shouldn’t be able to live off interest income, risk-free, generated from high-cost credit card debt.”
To earn returns, you need to take risk outside the traditional banking system. If you have money you can deposit, and earn saving points allowing you or the person you nominate to borrow interest-free.
This wasn’t a typical work trip—I had taken time off to visit because the bank was offering an international training program, allowing others to learn from their model.
As a Muslim, I’d long grappled with the cognitive dissonance of interest being akin to usury, and I’d seen how Islamic banks often resorted to copycat debt products resembling the medieval contractum trinius. JakBank’s approach seemed to offer a true disruption to traditional debt. At the time, I strongly believed it could change the game.
“JakBank’s approach seemed to offer a true disruption to traditional debt.”
Since then, I’ve tried to implement JakBank’s solutions in various contexts—successfully in not-for-profit institutions but largely unsuccessfully in for-profit ones. One of the biggest challenges I encountered was JakBank’s cooperative capital structure, which didn’t align well with most jurisdictions and could not scale.
Enter Tenami Capital
The realization that innovation in growth investing had been largely stagnant, and that debt hasn’t changed in over 5,000 years, led to the creation of Tenami Capital.
We’ve developed a product structure that shifts away from traditional debt, based on two key principles:
- Revenue-Based Financing:
There is no fixed amortization schedule. Instead, we take a share of revenue until capped returns are met, aligning our returns directly with the company’s performance, not interest rates. - Equity-Like Restructuring:
In the event the company doesn’t meet its revenue share obligations, we have a pre-agreed restructuring plan that converts the outstanding revenue share into discounted equity.
“To our knowledge, this makes us the first to offer an equity-based version of revenue-based financing.”
At Tenami Capital, our mission is to deliver top-quartile returns by backing overlooked and underserved segments of the market, while fostering deep alignment between investors and founders every step of the way.
And while I’m incredibly proud of the product and track record to date, what excites me even more is the team we’ve built. These individuals are driven, experienced, and ready to make a real impact on the world.
“Let’s change the world together!”
I’m looking forward to transitioning from an independent board member to a full-time partner at Tenami Capital — let’s change the world together!