Digital Wealth & Trading Platform for a $300M‑Funded MENA WealthTech Firm

The client is a next‑generation wealth and trading platform headquartered in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). Launched with a $300M investment from a top‑tier global custodian bank and a leading Abu Dhabi‑based alternative investment manager, the platform enables banks, asset managers, and financial institutions across MENA to offer digital investing, wealth management, and trading services — with Arabic‑native, Shariah‑embedded offering. The client operates as a B2B2C wealth infrastructure provider, not a direct‑to‑consumer trading app.

The client approached Itexus with a critical business challenge. They had already attempted to build the platform with another vendor, but the resulting MVP was not production‑ready:

• No Shariah automation – compliance checks were manual, taking weeks per transaction.

• No multi‑tenancy – each new bank required a separate deployment, making scaling impossible.

• Slow client onboarding – account opening took 5–7 days due to poor KYC/AML integration.

• No regulatory readiness – architecture did not address ADGM, CB UAE, or CMA KSA requirements.

The client needed to onboard their first 3–5 institutional clients in UAE and KSA — fast. They had the funding, but not the engineering capacity to deliver a compliant, scalable, Shariah‑embedded platform from scratch.

How the engagement started: The client gave Itexus a single high‑priority test module with a fixed 2‑week deadline to validate our engineering capability. We delivered on time. The module was production‑ready and later reused. Following this, the client transitioned to a Time & Material model, and our team grew from 2 to 5+ engineers, working alongside their internal teams and other contractors.

Our scope: Full‑stack web development (no mobile app). UI/UX design was provided by the client; Itexus handled implementation, including the React component library and full RTL support for Arabic.

The platform serves two primary user personas via separate web portals.

Relationship Manager (RM) Portal:

• Trading on behalf of clients (equities, funds, bonds / sukuk)

• Portfolio management with client‑level rollups

• Mid‑office operations portal

• Management dashboard with user‑level aggregations

• Marketplace for additional products

• Robo and goal planning

Investor Portal:

• Self‑service trading and portfolio viewing

• Goal‑based planning and robo‑advisory

• Marketplace access

• Embedded AI features across the user journey

Platform‑wide Capabilities:

• Multi‑tenant management with RBAC and granular permissions

• Referrals and data sharing (planned)

• CRM (planned)

Roadmap Expansions (in progress):

• Private markets, alternatives, and crypto

• Full‑stack POC integration with a trading/custody partner

• Holistic AI advisor across RM and investor channels

The system is designed for multi‑tenancy, cloud‑native deployment, and regulatory readiness for the MENA region.

Client Layer:

• React/TypeScript web applications for both RM and investor portals

• Full Arabic support with RTL capabilities

API Gateway:

• Azure API Management handling routing, rate limiting, and JWT validation

Backend & Services:

• .NET 8 microservices including User Service, KYC Service, Trading Service, Portfolio Service, Compliance (Shariah) Service, and Payment Service

• Synchronous communication via REST APIs

• Asynchronous communication via Azure Service Bus

Orchestration & Deployment:

• Docker containers orchestrated by Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for high availability and portability

• Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and Azure DevOps pipelines

Data & Storage:

• Azure SQL for transactional workloads

• Azure PostgreSQL for reporting and analytics

Security & Compliance:

• Zero‑trust architecture with Azure Entra ID (ex‑Azure AD) for identity management

• Role‑based access control (RBAC) and comprehensive audit trails

• Data residency provisions for regional compliance

Monitoring:

• Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Prometheus + Grafana

The platform is built to comply with ADGM, CB UAE, ESCA, and CMA KSA requirements.

• KYC / KYB / AML / Biometrics: Sumsub with liveness detection and selfie verification

• Shariah Compliance Screening: IdealRatings for real‑time screening of equities, funds, and sukuk

• Trading & Custody: Saxo Bank for execution and custody

• Funding / Payments: Direct bank transfers (Swift) plus Checkout.com for instant funding

• Document Workflow: DocuSign for agreements and disclosures

• Notifications: Twilio (SMS), SendGrid (email), and Firebase Cloud Messaging (push)

The engagement was delivered using Agile Scrum, evolving through three distinct phases.

Phase 1 – Test Module (2 weeks):
A fixed‑scope, high‑priority module delivered on time. The module was production‑ready and later reused in production releases.

Phase 2 – Embedded Team Ramp‑up (Months 1–3):
Transition to Time & Material model. The team scaled from 2 to 5+ engineers, integrated with the client’s internal teams and other contractors.

Phase 3 – Product Development (Ongoing):
Delivering trading and portfolio management as standard platform features. Preparing for the first 3 banks go‑lives plus 2 additional clients. Embedding AI features across portals. Maintaining a stable demo environment for client presentations.

• Test module: Delivered in 2 weeks and successfully reused in production.

• Team growth: Scaled from 2 to 5+ engineers under Time & Material model.

• Client onboarding time: Reduced from 5–7 days to under 24 hours through automated KYC/KYB with biometrics.

• Shariah compliance: Transformed from manual weeks‑long checks to real‑time automated screening.

• Platform readiness: Achieved for first 3 bank clients with a stable demo environment for prospect presentations.

• Regulatory alignment: ADGM‑ready architecture with provisions for CB UAE, ESCA, and CMA KSA.

• System uptime: 99.9% leveraging AKS and Azure availability zones.

• Certifications: SOC 2 Type II (in progress), ISO 27001 (client‑led, supported by Itexus).

• Capture revenue through rapid delivery of client‑ready features for bank deployments

• Deliver on commitments for product build and client deployments

• Embed AI features across RM and Investor portals

• Expand into private markets, alternatives, and crypto

• Build a holistic AI advisor leveraging the UAE ecosystem

• Complete go‑live with additional 1–3 banks beyond the initial five

• Deepen regulatory ties with CB UAE, ESCA, and CMA KSA

• Continue integration with trading/custody partner for full‑stack capability (POC completed)