Digital infrastructure, cloud-native and AI-native solutions are quickly maturing across the Middle East, with much of the region looking to catch up to, and eventually overtake, some of the traditionally wealth giants of the world. But achieving this presents challenges, so we looked to find out more about the landscape at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
Established in June 2023, Alpheya is a cloud-native, AI-powered wealthtech solution provider, which offers end-to-end solutions for wealth and trading franchises.
Launched with the backing of the Bank of New York (BNY) and Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based alternative investment manager, Alpheya aims to offer a new wealthtech solution for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
To find out how the company has developed, and overcome challenges in the year and a half since its inception, The Fintech Times sat down with Alpheya’s CEO, Roger Rouhana, at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
Partnerships and experience
“Our primary target clients are banks and private banks, because that’s how the market structure works here. That’s because banks and private banks deliver the majority of wealth here,” explained Rouhana. “The product market fit has been tested and really well received. There’s a lot of enthusiasm in the markets. Every time we present our money page and when we showcase our value proposition, it appears to deeply resonate because we solve several problems in a one-stop-shop solution. So now we’re focused on getting the product live, which we’re currently working on with our first client.”
Rouhana also explained the value of BNY’s relationship with Alpheya as the company looks to secure clients as it begins its growth journey.
“[Our relationship with BNY] gets us in the meeting, and then our goal when we talk to clients is to establish our credibility during the first 20 minutes. I believe we have the team required to do this. Our CPO built the wealth and trading proposition for Revolut; our chief AI officer spent 10 years as head of advisory at Standard Chartered; and our chief client officer who covers design and implementation has experience from BNY Pershing in the US.
“We brought together a good mix of practitioners and tech experts, unlike many other providers which lean one way or the other.”
Embracing innovation
Much of the Middle East continues to experience a significant digital transition. Rouhana delved into the pros and cons of this environment, highlighting that while regulators and firms welcome innovative solutions, not all sub-sectors are necessarily keeping up.
“In the Middle East, you generally have an environment that is extremely welcoming of innovation. Regulators, investors, and top-level financial institutions are definitely welcoming when you discuss the likes of cloud-native, or AI-first solutions as we do.
“However, wealth management and trading is one of the most conservative parts of finance. Often, when we speak to people in this area, they’re more likely to say they’re not sure they need the solution because that industry is traditionally pretty analogue. It used to rely on a big ledger, and everything was pens and paper, you had coffee and drinks with your clients, and that was it.”
Rouhana continued: “When you look at payments here, we almost leapfrogged from nowhere to one of the most digitally enabled payments in the world. Our goal is to do the same for wealth – where there’s still a reliance on analogue techniques to engage with clients – but we want to provide the infrastructure to help create the wealth space of tomorrow.”
Skipping a step
While the likes of the US and the UK took the lead with digital finance many years ago, they still face a number of challenges in today’s ecosystem. Legacy technology presents a significant roadblock for many firms, and may represent the perfect opportunity for countries and companies based in the Middle East to overtake these regions with new, innovative solutions.
Rouhana also explains this: “The glass half full view is, if you look at the US or UK market, they are full of fintechs that are 10, 20 or even 30 years old. Cloud-native technology and generative AI didn’t exist when these companies were established.
“As a result, they’re dealing with good, but not great solutions, which don’t allow them to be fully modular. And this is the case because many haven’t invested in revamping their wealth stack. Therefore, there’s still a lot to learn from the experience of the UK and US, but we have the opportunity to scratch the whole thing, and do something new.”
