Social investing platform InvestSky has launched after securing $3.4M in a Pre-SEED round led by Emkan Capital and joined by prominent investors including S3 Ventures, Al-Romaizan Family office, and notable angel investors. The startup was founded in 2021 by Nitish Mittal and Turki Alshaikh and is launching a social investing commission-free platform with the aim of making investing inclusive, intuitive, and informed.
The platform allows users to buy fractional stocks starting from $1 (3.67 AED) and provides a social community for users to collaborate. Nitish Mittal, CEO of InvestSky, commented: “We founded InvestSky on the recognition that retail investors are a hugely influential group across the middle east, yet the offering for them is clearly lagging behind. The region has not scratched the surface when it comes to the engagement and education of retail investors, especially considering the significant purchasing power, high GDP per capita and beneficial demographics. We intend to offer an empowering platform that helps educate our users to make sound investment decisions; powered by socially connected tools that will help build a collaborative community in the region.”
According to InvestSky, it will also provide market intelligence data which will further empower investors to make more informed decisions aligned with their investment principles whether they are shariah-compliance or focused on positive social and environmental impacts. Turki Alshaikh, Co-founder of InvestSky, commented: “The retail investor services market in the region is still highly untapped. The number of retail investors using fintech solutions grew by more than 180% over the past year, in Saudi alone, according to the CMA. Beyond this, we see a big gap in financial inclusion, with female retail investors making up less than 27% of investors. We believe that educating our users is key to building a sustainable market by improving both financial literacy and inclusion.
Managing Partner at S3 Capital, Yousef Al Yousefi, also commented on the investment, “Social investing will transform many elements of the large, fragmented money management market. The reason we chose InvestSky is its passionate founding team who possesses both intelligence and winning attitudes. We also believe in the social impact of raising retail investor awareness of the importance of saving and investing.”
The startup says it has received a category 4 license with retail endorsement from Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the Independent regulator of financial services conducted in or from DIFC. Ghassan Aloshban, General Partner at Emkan, concluded, “We are very proud to add InvestSky to our portfolio of companies; not only are Turki and Nitish exceptional entrepreneurs but they have built a world-class product that could easily compete with the best trading platforms globally. This coupled with an addressable market of roughly $1.2 trillion USD in retail investment flows in MENA and roughly 8 million retail investors in the GCC alone make for an incredibly exciting opportunity to capture market share with social trading.”
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