SouqView Wants First-Time UAE Investors to Practise in Arabic Before Risking Real Money
Abu Dhabi startup SouqView has announced its launch with an Arabic-first app that lets beginners practise trading with virtual money at real market prices. The app has been live since March 2026 and now counts more than 500 users.
Emirati fintech edutainment startup SouqView has announced its launch, with an Arabic-first app that lets beginners practise trading with virtual money at real market prices. We track the startup behind the announcement, and the app has been live since March 2026 with a growing user base.
The app is built for first-time investors who want to understand markets before they put their own money in, and its guiding idea is simple. Understand the market before you trade.
What the app does
Users build virtual portfolios from UAE and US-listed companies, with prices shown in UAE dirhams by default. The prices are real, the money is virtual, and a wrong call costs nothing.
The app also covers five major cryptocurrencies, alongside UAE and US stocks.
The app carries 288 lessons across 49 learning units, from what a share is to how financial markets work. Four AI guides, named Zayed, Noor, Astro and Barq, explain stocks and lessons in plain words, and the app says plainly that they are AI.
The lessons are written in Arabic, not translated, and the app flips fully right to left while the numbers stay left to right. Users can also book a paid one-to-one session with a real licensed adviser, with the price shown before anything is confirmed.
Built by a teenager who lost money first
The idea is personal to founder Mohammed Al Nasri. He says he built what he wanted at seventeen, a place to be wrong for free in Arabic, after watching people lose substantial amounts in markets they did not understand.
SouqView was developed under the Done by Youth initiative, and its educational and simulated trading features are free. The app is available on iPhone and Android.
“Learning to invest should begin with understanding, not with putting your savings at risk. We built SouqView to give beginners a place to ask questions, experiment, practise and make mistakes without losing real money. Financial markets can seem intimidating, particularly when information isn’t accessible in your own language. We want to change that, starting with Arabic and making learning more engaging.”
Mohammed Al Nasri, Founder of SouqView
Traction since March
SouqView launched in March 2026, and by October it had more than 400 registered users trading simulated portfolios across more than 10,000 UAE and US stocks. The company’s site now says more than 500 people have joined, with over 1,300 virtual trades placed.
The company says around 70 per cent of users are currently profitable in their simulated portfolios. The app holds a 4.5 rating on the App Store.
In October, SouqView previewed SouqView V2 at Ai Everything Abu Dhabi, the AI expo at ADNEC Centre. The startup was also selected for the inaugural MZN Hub71 programme, one of 17 Emirati startups chosen from more than 370 applications.
SouqView won the Fintech Sector Award at the 2nd Khalifa Fund Entrepreneurship Competition, run by the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development with the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award. It also secured a six-figure grant from the Khalifa Fund.
What it is not
SouqView states in its own terms that it is not a broker, an investment adviser or a licensed financial institution, and that nothing in the app is financial advice. All trading on the platform is simulated, with no real money involved and no real orders placed.
The company obtains market data through authorised third-party providers. It is not affiliated with the UAE Capital Market Authority.
Why Arabic first matters
Most investing content available in the region is written in English or translated from it, and SouqView’s own site says neither teaches anything. Starting in Arabic, with lessons written for the language rather than translated into it, is the bet the whole product rests on.
The timing fits a wider push in the UAE to build financial literacy among young people, and SouqView says collaborations with educational institutions are already underway. Its next steps include UAE equities and commodities and a push into universities and schools.
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