While access to online investing has expanded globally, many regions may still feel behind. In parts of the Middle East, for example, wealth-building has long relied on traditional systems like in-person meetings and portfolio managers. Fintech startups like Quantl are flipping that script—replacing older models with digital tools for long-term investing.
Recently, we sat down with Shamaz Khan, Founder of Quantl, a recently launched AI-powered, algorithmic robo-trading platform that’s bridging the gap between algorithmic trading and data-backed investing in the Middle East.
From Passion to Platform: Building a Passive Investment Solution with Alpaca
Founded in 2023, Quantl started from a personal passion project to build an algorithmic trading engine. However, as they grew and understood the needs of their customers and region more, they saw an opportunity to pivot.
Today, their mission is to offer emotionally neutral, data-driven tools that empower everyday investors with a systematic, accessible platform. “Instead of investing or managing the fund manually, we came up with a systematic investment platform where all decision-making from where to invest, what to invest in, and how long to invest for is backed up with data,” explains Shamaz. All of this is done to make long-term, passive investing more accessible for everyday investors across the Middle East.
In building their investment platform, Quantl partnered with Alpaca to address common user pain points, including onboarding timeline, access to investment strategies for US markets, and market knowledge.
Reducing Onboarding from Days to Minutes
In the Middle East, opening a brokerage account remains a very manual process. Know Your Customer (KYC) often requires signing up with the broker, engaging in back-and-forth calls, and an arduous document collection process that can take several days. It can then take multiple conversations to actually set up an investment portfolio, which is typically managed by a portfolio advisor. This process slows down a trader’s onboarding time, creating a multi-day process to place their first trade.
Caption: Quantl’s onboarding interface. Image is for illustrative purposes only.
“People want to invest. But in this region, there is a lot of friction in opening a brokerage account because, in the past, it has been done manually,” says Shamaz. With Alpaca’s Broker API, Quantl significantly reduces the onboarding process. “The main thing Alpaca solved for us is the onboarding friction. The fact that I can tell investors they can sign up online all by themselves with just their ID card and a phone or a laptop is a game-changer. Now they can be onboarded in just 7 to 10 minutes,” raves Shamaz.
Bringing US ETFs to the Region—One Dollar at a Time
Providing access to US markets was an important product feature for Quantl. While investors in the Middle East can invest in assets like contracts for difference (CFDs), futures, and forex markets, they can be complicated for new traders. With Alpaca, Quantl builds pre-made robo traders full of US stocks and ETFs, providing various investment opportunities.
“More and more people are aligning toward assets like US ETFs and stocks. Alpaca provided us a way to offer that to our clients. Now investors can buy assets without having to open a CFD position or futures contract, which are much more complicated products,” says Shamaz.
With fractional shares starting at just $1, investors can invest at an affordable amount. Additionally, investors can pick from a variety of strategies, called stock baskets, that align most with their investment thesis like gold, oil, the S&P 500, and more.
Caption: Quantl’s stock baskets interface. Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Quantl plans to build more sophisticated and customizable strategies in the future, but for now, they’re primarily targeting investors who want to contribute money monthly while allowing the algorithm to automatically rebalance the portfolio. For more experienced users, margin trading is also available.
Lack of Market Knowledge
Although passive investing has existed in the Middle East, systematic, mobile-first access to US asset trading is quite a recent development. To build trust with users and make them feel comfortable without a wealth manager, Shamaz created Quantl as a beginner-friendly platform backed by data. This helps to remove emotional bias, provides confidence to traders about expected returns, and allows investors to engage with the market without having to sit in front of the computer all day.
Working with Alpaca’s Developer-First Broker API
In building Quantl, Shamaz looked for an API infrastructure company that provided the right features while also being developer-friendly. “Being a tech guy, I have used a lot of APIs in my life, and the most painful thing is usually the documentation. With Alpaca, that's the best thing. The documentation is so clear, and it reduces the number of questions we have,” says Shamaz.
He also mentions how Alpaca’s engineering support exceeded expectations: “I had access to your tech team pretty much all the time, and they were extremely responsive. We are a very small team, so we had lots of questions about how to best utilize the technology. Plus, with your regional team, there was no delay or lag in response. I never had to ask the same question twice. Broker API integration is usually complicated, but Alpaca made it easy.”
Quantl’s Product Roadmap
As Quantl continues to build momentum in the region, its future goals are clear: to educate users about its product, grow its user base, and expand its product offering.
Educating Users About Algorithmic Trading
Aiming to replace wealth managers, educating investors about algorithmic trading and their platform is a top priority. Shazam understands that algorithmic trading is commonly misunderstood as being only a tool for high-frequency traders or short-term strategies. That’s why they are educating users not just on strategies, but on how systematic, automated trading can replace emotional trading.
“We are heavily focused on reducing the impact of emotional decision-making in trading, because, at the end of the day, that is the problem we are trying to solve. Many people still trade based purely on emotions and we want users to engage with a more disciplined approach to trading,” explains Shamaz.
Algorithm Expansion
As they grow, one of Quantl’s goals is to understand how they can optimize and expand upon their stock baskets. This includes speaking with users about what they’re looking to buy and how they can build more data-backed algorithms that align with that demand. Currently, their focus is building low-frequency trading strategies, but will expand to more complex, high-frequency strategies in the future.
Grow User Base and Engagement
Quantl’s biggest task is growing its audience and user engagement while ensuring product-market fit. Currently, they are positioning themselves as a product with well-curated algorithms that reduce the effect of emotions on trading.
“We’re not just offering a platform. We’re delivering curated, automated investment strategies. As such, we are incorporating the educational element into almost every marketing effort because we need to tell the user about this type of a product,” says Shamaz. “This education is important early on as we will be offering more complex products in the future.”
Product Expansion
Top of mind for Shamaz and the Quantl team is options trading, especially as the Middle East market has sophisticated traders who are familiar with CFDs and futures. Another area of interest is offering markets in addition to the US, including the UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi market will be especially useful in serving their more regional clients.
“Big congratulations to Shamaz and the Quantl team on their recent launch! We're proud to have collaborated on building a solution that simplifies investing, empowers investors with a data-driven approach, and removes barriers for individuals seeking to engage with US assets,” says Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO and Co-Founder of Alpaca.
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About Alpaca
Alpaca is a US-headquartered self-clearing broker-dealer and brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, and 24/5 trading – raising over USD170 million in funding. Alpaca is backed by top-tier investors globally, including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Unbound, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Elefund, and Y Combinator.
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