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It’s a decades-old Gulf problem: Trillions of dollars in regional wealth sit in global financial hubs, generating returns for owners and fees for foreign asset managers. Abu Dhabi’s Lunate and BNY Mellon are betting fintech is the fix. The two committed $300 million in 2023 to back Abu Dhabi startup Alpheya’s platform that helps banks offer the kind of wealth management services their affluent clients typically seek abroad.
Personal financial assets in the Gulf exceed $1 trillion. Much of that money is still deployed overseas or at risk of flight because customers are frustrated with outdated systems across regional banks, Alpheya CEO Roger Rouhana told Semafor. “The Gulf generates tremendous wealth, yet a disproportionate share of those assets is still managed abroad. The opportunity now is to build the capabilities that bring those assets back and anchor them in the region’s financial system.”
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For decades, global hubs like Geneva, Hong Kong, London, New York, Singapore, and Zurich dominated wealth management, underpinned by political stability, deep financial systems, and good infrastructure. Rouhana said the Gulf has caught up on most of these fronts, and instability elsewhere is creating a draw. “If you’re thinking about where to domicile capital or how to diversify global exposure, the Gulf has become a serious part of that conversation,” he said.
The shifting flow is visible in UAE financial centers and into Saudi assets. There’s also an opposite flow, along the same theme: Abu Dhabi sovereign investors like Lunate and Mubadala have been buying into fee-generating businesses abroad, including private credit platforms, hedge funds, and infrastructure firms.
What’s still missing in the region, Rouhana said, is the infrastructure for local banks to compete with global wealth managers. Alpheya wants to fill that gap. It is scaling quickly, with nearly $50 billion in assets already running on its platform — almost double last year. The company has built a client base in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, Rouhana said, adding that the next phase is to scale AI capabilities within banks to help them expand.