London Business School, the number 1 ranked MBA school according to the Financial Times, held a seminar in London last week about successful entrepreneurial start-ups in the Middle East. The seminar included a presentation by Derayah Financial from Saudi Arabia, outlining their experience in establishing a unique and innovative business in the financial services industry.
The seminar was moderated by Mr. Rajesh Chandy, Professor of Marketing at London Business School, with lectures by Mohammed El-Kuwaiz, co-founder Managing Director of Derayah, Rabea Ataya, CEO & Chairman of Bayt.com, and Dr Naif Al Mutawa, CEO & Founder of The 99 comics series.
During the seminar, Mr. El-Kuwaiz described the business model of Derayah and the successes that it has achieved in establishing the first mutual fund supermarekt in the Middle East which combines a wide variety of mutual funds from various investment companies in one place.
El-Kuwaiz also stressed that the goal of any new project should not be merely to ‘create shareholder value’, but rather to introduce new and innovative products and services that add real value and benefits to people’s lives. These benefits are what ultimately creates ‘shareholder value’, but the ’shareholder value’ in this case is an outcome, not an objective.
He added: “Based on this concept, Derayah started with a vision to ‘empower investors to take control of their financial destiny on their own, by combining multiple investment products and markets in one place and by providing all the information that investors need to choose among them with ease and transparency’ ”.
El-Kuwaiz continued: “This message enabled Derayah to introduce new and novel approach of investing, and to become the first financial company that gives its clients access to the largest number of mutual funds from various banks and investment companies through one electronic platform. This helped Derayah distinguish itself and thrive despite the increasing number of licensed investment companies during the last few years”.
During the seminar, El-Kuwaiz also stated that Derayah chose to take the side of the individual investor, and therefore the company doesn’t manage any mutual funds of its own in order to eliminate any conflict in interest or bias towards certain mutual funds. The company focuses only on providing all mutual funds in one place where its clients can also find all the information they need to pick and choose the suitable products independently and transparently”.
Mohammed El-Kuwaiz, the CEO and co-founder of Derayah Financial, also discussed the company’s plans for future expansion which include the launch of the first electronic trading platform that enables individual investors to trade in various markets both regionally and internationally, all from a single website and a single account. El-Kuwaiz pointed out that only a few companies around the world have managed to achieve this seemlessly, which clearly gives Derayah a winning advantage over most investment companies around the world.
