MASNA Ventures appoints Al Marji as Sharia advisor to Sentinel Shield Fund I

RIYADH — MASNA Ventures has appointed Al Marji as Sharia governance advisor to its Sentinel Shield Fund I, a Saudi fund focused on defence and security investments.

The appointment, announced through a press release, puts a dedicated Sharia governance layer over a fund operating in one of the kingdom's most strategically sensitive sectors. Al Marji will oversee the compliance of the fund's structure and investments with Islamic finance principles.

Defence and security technology has become a priority lane for Saudi capital as the kingdom pushes local procurement and industrial localization under Vision 2030. Funds in the space increasingly need formal governance infrastructure to attract institutional limited partners, particularly those with Sharia mandates.

MASNA has not disclosed the size of Sentinel Shield Fund I or its limited partner base. The appointment itself is the disclosure: governance hires of this kind typically precede, rather than follow, a fund's first closes.

Watch whether MASNA announces an anchor LP or a first portfolio deployment for Sentinel Shield in the coming months. Either would confirm the fund is moving from setup into operations.

Zawya first reported the appointment.