Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqalmal, says 10 companies have already signed up for the financial literacy app. Pawan Singh / The National
Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqalmal, says 10 companies have already signed up for the financial literacy app. Pawan Singh / The National
Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqalmal, says 10 companies have already signed up for the financial literacy app. Pawan Singh / The National
Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqalmal, says 10 companies have already signed up for the financial literacy app. Pawan Singh / The National

Generation Start-up: How Yabi helps employees learn smart money skills


Felicity Glover
  • English
  • Arabic

When entrepreneur Ambareen Musa founded financial comparison website Souqalmal in Dubai in 2012, little did she know that it would serve to highlight one of the biggest personal finance issues that people face worldwide: a lack of smart money skills to build fiscal resilience.

However, it was during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic that the issue came to a head, when Ms Musa started to receive phone calls from companies seeking help for employees whose salaries had been cut.

“The CEOs were saying that the level of productivity had dropped, people were stressing out, taking their kids out of school and, ‘We’ve suddenly realised that 20 per cent less of a salary has thrown people completely off guard and they can’t survive’,” Ms Musa says.

And that is when the idea for her second start-up, Yabi by Souqalmal, was born. At the same time, Ms Musa was in discussions with Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Capital to acquire a majority stake in Souqalmal, which means “money market” in Arabic.

The deal was completed in March last year for an undisclosed amount and Ms Musa retains a minority equity stake in the company.

“As we were discussing the acquisition, Shuaa Capital asked me, ‘What’s next?’” Ms Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqalmal, says.

“I told them about Yabi and gave them the business plan because I thought this would be the next business to do. They did invest and put seed money into the new venture and that’s how we started Yabi.

“It was basically based on my experience with Souqalmal; my own vision that nobody should get into the workforce without a proper education on how to manage their first pay cheque.”

After the deal was completed, Shuaa said its investment would provide growth capital to Souqalmal and allow it to execute an ambitious growth plan over the next 24 months.

“We believe that Souqalmal and its financial education arm have the ability to empower customers to understand, manage and grow their finances in a better way,” Fawad Khan, managing director and head of investment banking at Shuaa Capital, said at the time.

“As Souqalmal strengthens its personal and wealth management offering, Shuaa will be well positioned to help the company access new pools of capital, products and, more importantly, knowledge.”

The pandemic raised widespread concern over personal financial issues as millions of people globally were either furloughed, lost their jobs or had their salaries cut, highlighting the importance of saving, having an emergency fund for short-term cash needs and enough money for retirement.

Retirement savings is the biggest financial challenge faced by employees in Gulf Co-operation Council countries, followed by childcare and education expenses, and saving for other commitments such as housing, day-to-day costs and emergencies, according to a survey published by global advisory company Willis Towers Watson in January.

About 78 per cent of employers in the GCC are planning to develop financial well-being strategies for employees over the next two years to help them bridge their retirement savings gap, the survey found.

Last October, National Bonds, the Sharia-compliant savings and investment company owned by Investment Corporation of Dubai, launched a Golden Pension Scheme to help private-sector foreign employees with their retirement planning.

In April this year, National Bonds unveiled its Second Salary programme that aims to generate a supplementary income for Emiratis and residents during retirement.

Dubai also launched a savings retirement scheme last year for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector.

The system is in addition to the existing gratuity scheme, which is a defined end-of-service benefit that all employed residents in the UAE are entitled to after completing at least one year of service.

Watch: How to open a bank account in the UAE

Officially launched two months ago, Yabi by Souqalmal is an app that offers structured personal finance masterclasses to employees of UAE companies that have signed up for the service.

Knowing how to budget, save, invest and make informed decisions when it comes to loans and credit can help people to avoid financial pitfalls and take control of their financial lives, Ms Musa says.

And while many new financial literacy start-ups focus on teaching children smart money skills, Ms Musa says Yabi by Souqalmal is for adults.

“We're starting where people need the help most, which is the adult level, the employee level,” she adds.

“If parents don’t understand it themselves, then how will the kids? I want to indulge it at the high level … get employees to manage their retirement, the first generation, and then escalate to the next generation.”

The Yabi by Souqalmal masterclasses cover topics such as budgeting, asset allocation, investing in cryptocurrencies, how to buy a home, calculating retirement income and how to invest.

The courses have been localised for the UAE market and Yabi by Souqalmal has signed up a range of experts to teach the masterclasses.

“We’ve got the chief financial officer of du, the chief investment officer of Emirates NBD, the chief executive of Al Etihad Credit Bureau, the director of the Health Insurance Authority, the general manager of General Motors … we’ve got experts in the industry, in the country,” Ms Musa says.

“We filmed them and the courses are bite size, 25 minutes each, three minutes per chapter and you can come in for, what we call, your ‘financial workout’.”

The app is able to read users’ bank statements and analyse their spending over the past six months. It also offers users access to financial coaches and financial health checks.

Companies pay for a licence to use the app – businesses that have fewer than 1,000 employers pay Dh129 per user per year and companies with more than 1,000 workers are charged Dh79 per user annually.

“Another [payment] model is when we come in [to a company] and introduce Yabi to the employees and they pick it up on their own,” Ms Musa says.

Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqamal, plans to launch the start-up in Saudi Arabia in October. Pawan Singh / The National
Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqamal, plans to launch the start-up in Saudi Arabia in October. Pawan Singh / The National

So far, 10 UAE companies have signed up for Yabi by Souqalmal, including Dubai-based super app Careem, Majid Al Futtaim, one of Dubai's biggest private sector companies and the Middle East's largest mall operator, and Emirates Catering Services.

While Ms Musa faced challenges developing the start-up, she says they were similar to what she experienced with Souqalmal, including the right talent acquisition.

“The challenge is more learning and building the ecosystem as we build the business, so [there] is a lot of education for the HR department,” she says.

Future plans include launching Yabi by Souqalmal in Saudi Arabia in October. It will cover similar content as the UAE version but will be in Arabic and feature local financial experts, Ms Musa says.

The company has also had requests to launch in other countries, but Ms Musa says the company will focus on a gradual expansion.

“I think financial education is not something that is done overnight but takes time and it is an ongoing process,” she says.

“We want Yabi to be in the region but localised to each country and be the financial education platform used by all companies and government agencies to promote and raise the level of financial literacy in their country.”

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Q&A with Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Yabi by Souqalmal

What other successful start-up do you wish you had started?

That's an interesting question. I do not have an answer to this but I am always thinking about how to solve customer problems in every situation I am in. I think I am in the exact place a start-up should be.

Who is your role model?

My dad.

What new skills have you learnt since launching Yabi by Souqalmal?

I think I have applied a lot of what I learnt from Souqalmal. It is the first time I am building a business-to-business company, so this has been an interesting learning curve.

Where do you want to be in five years?

I am still trying to figure out the next 12 months! I do not plan so far ahead as I like to be able to adapt to what is thrown to me and make the most of opportunities that arise.

If you could do it all differently, what would you change?

Nothing.

World Cup final

Who: France v Croatia
When: Sunday, July 15, 7pm (UAE)
TV: Game will be shown live on BeIN Sports for viewers in the Mena region

Another way to earn air miles

In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.

An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.

“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.

Company%C2%A0profile
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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months

War

Director: Siddharth Anand

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor

Rating: Two out of five stars 

Profile box

Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D 
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India

F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

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Updated: August 14, 2023, 4:30 AM`