yallacompare, the number one finance site in the Middle East, is partnering with online investment experts Sarwa to bring straightforward investment opportunities to the region.
Sarwa is an investment advisory platform that helps people put their money to work and reach their life goals – with investments starting from just US$500. yallacompare will offer Sarwa’s exciting investment opportunities via its savings and investments page https://yallacompare.com/uae/en/saving-accounts/.
Jonathan Rawling, CFO, yallacompare, says: “Sarwa adds an exciting, simple and easy way for our clients to invest their hard-earned savings in a straightforward, simple way. Offering Sarwa’s investment expertise to our site adds yet another useful online tool to the ever-growing yallacompare family of offerings.
“In this difficult year, we have seen an uptick in the number of people searching for investment products.”
Sarwa – appropriately the Arabic word for fortune, wealth, or riches – allows customers to open an account online within a few minutes, leveraging technology to bring down cost and account minimums. Based on a few answers to an online questionnaire, the client receives a recommended portfolio of diversified investment that reflects their risk appetite.
In January, Sarwa raised raised $8.4 million in a Series A round making the total funds raised to over $10 million. The round was led by Kuwait Projects Company (aka KIPCO) with the participation of Dubai International Financial Center, Abu Dhabi Investment Office, Saudi-based Vision Ventures, UK’s Hambro Perks. Some existing investors also participated in the round.
Mark Chahwan, Co-founder and CEO of Sarwa says:’ “Our values align with yallacompare’s mission perfectly. While we continue working on changing the industry, we are a customer-first organisation: simply put, we want to help as many people as possible make the most of their savings. It’s time that investing became simpler, smarter, and had lower fees attached. We just launched a local account, which allows for local transfers, cutting out the international banks charge.’’
Whether customers are seasoned investors or first-timers, Sarwa brings a refreshing ease and simplicity to what it considers to be a currently over-complex market. While it’s very much an online venture, clients who require, can speak directly with one of Sarwa’s wealth advisors.
Funds are invested across global markets and different class assets using strategies based on the Modern Portfolio Theory – a nobel prize-winning research in financial economics. The portfolios are built using Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), with a pre-approved risk level, and a custom portfolio based on client financial goals.
With a passive investment strategy based around a globally diversified portfolio, Sarwa optimizes returns with lower cost: the annual advisory fee starts at 0.85%, lowering to 0.5% for balances of $100K+. Accounts under $2500 are free of charge for one year, to allow customers to try it out. This small annual advisory fee is substantially lower than what the industry typically charges on average.
“Sarwa was born from the realization that many in the region did not have access to proper affordable investing. To get the right investment required thorough research and a lot of money to start. Often, this leads to some very common and painful errors – like investing in individual companies instead of diversified portfolios, focusing too much on real estate instead of investing also in the stock market assets, working with expensive financial planners and getting locked into bad insurance or lengthly saving plans. This is where Sarwa comes in. We want to make investing honest, accessible and affordable to all so that anyone can build a better future. It’s a mission that drives us,” adds Mark Chahwan.
yallacompare allows consumers to benefit from a wide range of insurance deals, and apply for bank accounts, credit cards, loans, cars and more – in nine markets across the MENA region.