Mays Ibrahim (ABU DHABI)

Inexperienced investors lose billions every year chasing markets they don't understand. Two Abu Dhabi startup founders - who both traded as teenagers and lost big before they got it right - are now building apps that let beginners practise with real market data and zero financial risk.

Mohamed Al Nasri was 17 when he started trading US stocks using his father's brokerage account. Within months, he had damaged the portfolio badly enough to force himself to stop and reconsider.

"I said, 'Mohamed, before taking any risks, stop losing. Start learning more'," the young founder, now 22, recalled in an interview with Aletihad.

"That [experience] taught me that before investing, people need a safe place to learn."

Mustafa Samhoun followed a similar path. As a freshman at a university in Washington DC, he began trading cryptocurrency with his own money - and watched it disappear.

"I lost a lot of money," Samhoun told Aletihad. "And I realised I need to find the right people to trade for me. It's the same problem that a lot of people my age face. They jump in without knowing where to start."

Both founders are now among 17 startups selected for the inaugural cohort of the MZN Hub71 programme, a joint initiative between the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development and Hub71, Abu Dhabi's global tech ecosystem. 
The three-month programme, hosted at the MZN Hub in Al Ain, supports Emirati entrepreneurs in developing ideas into minimum viable products.

Two Approaches to the Same Problem

Al Nasri's platform, SouqView, takes a simulation-first approach, allowing users to trade more than 8,000 real US stocks and ETFs using virtual money.

Prices update in real time, per millisecond, drawn from third-party market data providers.

"It's like a trading app with a gamified twist," he explained. "You can track your portfolio, share it with friends, compete on leaderboards."

The app tailors its interface to each user's skill level, simplifying data for beginners and unlocking complexity as they progress.

Before any trade, an AI assistant provides due diligence, flagging recent news, analyst sentiment, and potential risks.

Launched four months ago, SouqView is available on the App Store and Google Play. The platform has attracted more than 160 users, with over 60% returning weekly, according to Al Nasri.

He now plans to expand into UAE equities and commodities, in addition to introducing SouqView in universities and schools to improve financial literacy among young people.

Samhoun's platform, Odysseon, takes a different route: instead of simulating trades, it connects inexperienced investors to vetted expert traders who manage their capital directly.

"We want people to learn by delegating," Samhoun said. "If you're trying to learn with your own capital, you're going to lose a lot before you get there. If you delegate to experts, watch what they're doing, you learn from their decisions."
Users can select multiple traders based on their track records, allocate funds to each, and monitor performance. "It's as if you're your own fund manager," the founder said.

AI helps personalise that process, using a reinforcement learning model to analyse users' risk profiles and recommend traders and strategies aligned with their investment preferences.

The platform also offers algorithmic trading models developed in-house. Samhoun's team ran a crypto trading fund that returned 180% in its first year and 47% year-to-date.

"We don't believe that only hedge funds and institutions should have access to these tools," he said. "Our goal is to democratise financial access."

Odysseon has onboarded 200 beta users while the team works through security audits and regulatory requirements.

Both founders see their platforms as correctives to an industry that has made trading easy to access but difficult to understand.

"When you are a beginner, you will get overwhelmed by the data you get," Al Nasri said. "Most applications lack the ability to tailor their interface to the level of the trader."

Samhoun agreed. "Most crypto platforms are very overwhelming. Unless you're an expert, you don't know what you're doing. You'll probably get too overwhelmed before you make your first trade."

Their solutions aim to offer young investors a safer on-ramp to be able to engage with real markets without suffering irreversible losses while they learn.