subsidiaries

drahim

In September 2024, alrajhi bank acquired a 65% stake in the ‘Drahim’ application, a leading personal financial management (PFM) and automated investment platform licensed by SAMA within the FinTech Lab, and the Capital Market Authority’s regulatory environment. The acquisition marks the first of its kind in the region, with a Saudi bank securing a majority stake in a local fintech startup, and also reflects alrajhi bank’s vision to be preferred partner for innovative companies in the fast-growing FinTech sector.

With the acquisition by alrajhi bank expediting the FinTech’s growth, Drahim further strengthened its status as one of the Kingdom’s best open banking and robo advisory solutions. By providing automated, algorithm-driven, market-disrupting investment and wealth management services, Drahim recorded a remarkable increase in assets under management (AUM) on the app, with the number of registered users on the app growing by more than 250% YoY at the close of 2024.

A strong year backed by a strong team

During the year in review, Drahim’s well-balanced team of financial, investment and technology experts powered its rapid growth and success. The team was behind building Drahim’s complete investment pipeline within a short time period, and also went on to implement one of the best categorisation and transaction enrichment engines currently in operation within the Saudi FinTech market.

The multi-layered engine has enabled the classifying of financial transactions into predefined categories, with the data enrichment process enhancing transactional data into actionable insights, leading to improved customer satisfaction. To date, the engine has categorised and enriched over 2.5 Billion transactions, with the volume of processed data enabling Drahim to gain even more deeper transaction insights to further improve the app features and outputs.

Drahim launched over 30 major product features on the app during the year in review, to stay ahead in a highly competitive market; most notable among these is Drahim’s new Active Portfolio that allows users to invest in some of the top-performing equity funds in Saudi. The app also introduced a Savings Portfolio, and a Custom Portfolio Builder, with users also able to utilise the app feature to link with and monitor external portfolios. The Zakat calculation feature is automated to further improve the customer experience.

Cultivating a saving and investment mindset

From a budget-conscious beginner looking to build savings and prioritise expenses, to an active investor looking for deeper insights into their portfolio performance, Drahim empowers users with insights to better manage money and make smarter, informed financial decisions. Drahim users are able to:

• Consolidate all bank accounts (belonging to any local bank) in one app, thereby having an overall clear view of their financial health.
• Monitor spending in real-time with all transactions categorised and enriched by its AI engine, helping to better control, forecast, and prioritise expenses, while instilling healthy spending habits.
• Save and invest by opening a personalised investment portfolio with diverse assets, encouraging users to set long-term financial goals and building wealth for a secure future.

Becoming part of a growing ecosystem

Within a short window of time, Drahim has seamlessly become part of the growing financial services ecosystem of alrajhi bank. The bank’s retail app is now powered by the Drahim PFM, enabling users to make smart, well-informed financial decisions. The FinTech also collaborated with alrajhi Capital – the largest broker in the Kingdom – adding its public equity funds to Drahim’s robo advisory portfolios.

Beyond the alrajhi ecosystem, the Drahim app has shown great promise and potential to reach non-alrajhi retail customers as an all-in-one personal finance manager and robo advisory, providing them with a unique value proposition and user experience that can drive new retail customer acquisitions for alrajhi bank.

Future outlook

The FinTech sector plays a key role in driving innovation and competition across the Saudi banking landscape, thereby contributing directly towards the development of the financial sector, a key objective of Saudi Vision 2030. Drahim will continue to advance the FinTech sector of Saudi Arabia as it continues its growth momentum into 2025, remaining committed to its vision to cultivate a saving and investment mindset that can guarantee a more secure financial future for users.