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Raseed, the investment platform for GCC residents enabling access to stock trading in the US market, has raised a $1.1M (SAR 4.1 M) Pre-Seed round led by Impact46 with participation from Oqal Angel Investors and leading family offices in the region.
Founded in early 2020, Raseed, the go-to platform for Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain investors, facilitates the process of buying and selling stocks on the US stock markets with its commission-free application. Through Raseed's seamless registration process, users can join the platform in minutes with no minimum investment requirement. Raseed forged a series of partnerships with leading brokers and verification platforms, to provide secure access to US financial markets and serve as a launchpad towards new investment opportunities. Upon receiving licenses from regulatory authorities in the GCC, the platform went live and has launched its application to users in the GCC. Raseed is licensed by the Dubai Financial Service Authority (DFSA), the financial regulator in the UAE, and has a sandbox license from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
As recorded in our Q3 2021 EVM FinTech Venture Investment Report MENA-based FinTech startups raised more than double the amount of capital by Q3 2021 than full year 2020. A 10-deal dip in overall transactions garnering a 100% YoY growth in funding meant funding rounds backing FinTech in MENA have been observing larger ticket sizes. By Q3 2021 the average round size of an Early-Stage FinTech round increased to $1M while the average Series A round reached $13.4M. More remarkably, signs of maturity are reflected in the industry where a sharp 40% decrease in Early-Stage (< $500K) deal share was observed by the third quarter of the year, marked by an impressive 26% increase in later-stage deals ($500K- $3M). Since October, we have been observing ample Investor openness for futuristic technologies across both sectors, where funding rounds in Crypto were closed by CoinMENA and BitOasis, investments in open banking were highlighted in Tarabut Gateway’s $12M Pre-Series A and FinTech Galaxy's $2M SEED, and investment in open trading platforms like UAE-based Sarwa and most recently Raseed.
Raseed is set to break down the barriers to building wealth, with a focus on inclusivity and simplicity which extends to the trading experience. The platform is geared towards both beginners and expert traders, enabling users to manage & track their portfolio with features such as instant fractional shares trading, premium stock analysis tools, unique market insights and news, and educational resources to promote financial literacy within the user community. “Investing should be accessible to everyone, and we at Raseed are committed to making this possible and fun for all users in our region. Through best-in-class technologies and partnerships, we have simplified the customer onboarding process, reduced onboarding time to minutes, and eliminated the high barriers to buying and owning stocks” commented Abdel Sallam Qatshan, the founder of Raseed.
Raseed has been fueled by leading regional accelerators and has successfully graduated from Startupbootcamp FinTech in Dubai, UAE, and Flat6Labs in Bahrain. The fund will be used to support product development, the rollout of new features, scaling to new markets, and increasing Raseed’s user base by offering innovative and advanced investment opportunities. “Raseed team, led by Abdel Sallam Qatshan, have a wealth of experience in both the financial and technology sectors that fit Raseed’s mission to enable and create wealth for its users. Throughout our interactions with the team, we also see a great entrepreneurial spirit that we believe is essential to navigating the GCC markets and beyond,” concluded Mohamed Alnasyan, Senior Analyst from Impact46.
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