We’re excited to announce that Sav, a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-based autonomous consumer fintech, has partnered with Alpaca, a brokerage technology infrastructure offering API access to multiple asset types, including stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income, and crypto. Through this partnership, Sav has expanded their investing capabilities to provide access to US stocks, ETFs, and high-yield* cash accounts.
Access to global investing opportunities in the Middle East has been historically limited due to the high cost to serve, investment minimums, and local regulations.1 However, a growing demand for international stocks, combined with globally-focused regulations and new technology, has lowered costs and investment minimums, providing more opportunity to local investors.2
Reflecting the region's growing demand for foreign investment, US equity holdings in the GCC rose from around $415 billion in 2019 to $812 billion in 2024, according to the US Department of Treasury.3 Sav’s launch of US equities and high-yield cash accounts is a testament to this trend, providing new opportunities for their customers to actively track their finances and help grow their wealth in one app.
The launch, powered by Alpaca’s Broker API, also includes features like:
- Lazy Cash, which scans users’ accounts to identify idle balances and invests them into risk-evaluated portfolios
- Fractional Investing, starting from just $1 USD
- Thematic Portfolios aligned with global trends
“At Sav, we’re creating an investing experience designed to remove the friction, fear, and fragmentation that have kept people from creating wealth,” says Purvi Munot, CEO at Sav. “With Alpaca’s Broker API, we’ve recreated the investing experience from the ground up to be intelligent, adaptive, and actionable—one that grows alongside our customers.”
“Our partnership with Sav represents our continued commitment towards opening access to financial services within the Middle East,” says Yoshi Yokokawa, Co-Founder and CEO, Alpaca. “We’re thrilled to support Sav in expanding their platform capabilities, helping customers build wealth with greater confidence.”
Contact Alpaca
About Alpaca
Alpaca is a US-headquartered, self-clearing broker-dealer and a global leader in brokerage infrastructure APIs providing access to stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income, and crypto. Alpaca delivers embeddable finance solutions for tokenization, fully paid securities lending, high-yield cash, 24/5 trading, Shariah-compliant investing and more. Today, Alpaca powers over 7 million brokerage accounts across hundreds of fintechs and institutions in 40+ countries with over $170M in funding.
About Sav
Founded in 2022, Sav is an autonomous consumer fintech regulated by the DFSA, UAE and built on open banking rails that enables users to manage all their financial accounts in one place, while Sav Ai helps them save more, reduce debt, and build wealth. Sav is a UAE-Future 100 company, backed by 500-Sanabil, KAUST Innovation Ventures, Google for startups and Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund.
- “Middle East WealthTech Landscape Report”, The Wealth Mosaic, 2023, pg 6
- “Middle East WealthTech Landscape Report”, The Wealth Mosaic, 2023, pg 44
- “Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities”, Department of the Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, June 28, 2024, pg 60. To get the total number for GCC, we added up the values between added values across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates for 2019 and 2024.
*Alpaca Securities offers a cash management program pursuant to the FDIC Bank Sweep. Customer funds are treated differently and are subject to separate regulatory regimes depending on whether customer funds are held in their brokerage account or within the FDIC Bank Sweep. Specifically, Alpaca Securities is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash). The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures up to $250,000 per deposit against the failure of an FDIC member bank. Customer funds held in brokerage accounts are SIPC insured, but are not eligible for FDIC insurance coverage. Funds maintained in the FDIC Bank Sweep are intended to be eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance coverage, but are not subject to SIPC coverage. FDIC insurance coverage does not protect against the failure of Alpaca, Alpaca Securities, or any of its or their affiliates and/or malfeasance by any Alpaca or Alpaca Securities employee. Program banks that participate in the FDIC Bank Sweep are not members of SIPC and therefore funds held in the Program are not SIPC protected. Please see alpaca.markets/disclosures for important additional disclosures regarding Alpaca Securities brokerage offering as well as FDIC Bank Sweep terms and conditions.
Alpaca Securities LLC is not affiliated with Sav and neither is responsible for the liabilities of the other.
Please note that this article is for general informational purposes only and is believed to be accurate as of the posting date but may be subject to change.
Options trading is not suitable for all investors due to its inherent high risk, which can potentially result in significant losses. Please read Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before investing.
Fractional share trading allows a customer to buy and sell fractional share quantities and dollar amounts of certain securities. Fractional share trading presents unique risks and is subject to particular limitations that you should be aware of before engaging in such activity. See Alpaca Customer Agreement at https://alpaca.markets/disclosures for more details.
The testimonials, statements, and opinions presented on the website are applicable to the specific individuals. It is important to note that individual circumstances may vary, and may not be representative of the experience of others. There are no guarantees of future performance or success. The testimonials are voluntarily provided and are not paid, nor were they provided with free products, services or any other benefit in exchange for said statements.
Fixed income securities can experience a greater risk of principal loss when interest rates rise. These investments are also subject to additional risks, including credit quality fluctuations, market volatility, liquidity constraints, prepayment or early redemption, corporate actions, tax implications, and other influencing factors.
Orders placed outside regular trading hours (9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET) may experience price fluctuations, partial executions, or delays due to lower liquidity and higher volatility. Orders not designated for extended hours execution will be queued for the next trading session. Additionally, fractional trading may be limited during extended hours. For more details, please review Alpaca Extended Hours & Overnight Trading Risk Disclosure.
Additional geographic restrictions may apply for tokenization services based on local regulatory requirements. Neither Alpaca Crypto LLC nor Alpaca Securities LLC are the issuer of, nor directly involved in, the tokenization of any assets. Tokenization is performed by a third party. Tokenized assets do not represent direct equity ownership in any underlying company or issuer. Instead, tokenized assets generally provide economic exposure to the equity securities of an underlying issuer. As such, holders of tokenized assets have no voting rights, dividend entitlements, or legal claims to the underlying company shares or any residual assets in the event of the underlying company’s liquidation or insolvency, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
All investments involve risk, and the past performance of a security, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. There is no guarantee that any investment strategy will achieve its objectives. Please note that diversification does not ensure a profit, or protect against loss. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.
Securities brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC ("Alpaca Securities"), member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.
Alpaca does not make any representation that its products or services are Shariah-compliant. Customers are solely responsible for determining whether any offering meets their own Shariah requirements.
Cryptocurrency is highly speculative in nature, involves a high degree of risks, such as volatile market price swings, market manipulation, flash crashes, and cybersecurity risks. Cryptocurrency regulations are continuously evolving, and it is your responsibility to understand and abide by them. Cryptocurrency trading can lead to large, immediate and permanent loss of financial value. You should have appropriate knowledge and experience before engaging in cryptocurrency trading. For additional information, please click here.
Cryptocurrency services are made available by Alpaca Crypto LLC ("Alpaca Crypto"), a FinCEN registered money services business (NMLS # 2160858), and a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Alpaca Crypto is not a member of SIPC or FINRA. Cryptocurrencies are not stocks and your cryptocurrency investments are not protected by either FDIC or SIPC. Please see the Disclosure Library for more information.
This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or cryptocurrencies or open a brokerage account or cryptocurrency account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities or Alpaca Crypto, respectively, are not registered or licensed, as applicable.
