Investing in the American stock market isn’t simple or straightforward for international investors, and there’s a big barrier to entry if you’re not very rich.

Abdelazim El Toukhy is the Founder and CEO of Ticr, a Robinhood-style trading platform for people in the Middle East / North Africa regions.

In this episode, you’ll learn how the industry is set up, how people in this region typically invest their money, what current solutions exist, and what it takes to solve this problem. Azim talks about the whole industry ecosystem as well as the compliance/licensing challenges they are facing right now.

01:25 – Current process of U.S. stock investing in the Middle East, different options available

07:15 – The landscape of brokers and middlemen explained

11:56 – How this expands to different countries and geographies

14:04 – Challenges of building an overseas trading platform – licensing etc

18:30 – How Ticr solves it – system, stakeholders, business model

23:00 – Costs of legal compliance

25:43 – Other ways Ticr differentiates itself, differences in investor preferences between US and EMEA

33:45 – Ticr’s education platform

35:53 – Competition

38:51 – How sanctions and international politics affect the business

41:50 – Azim’s personal journey in entrepreneurship

50:00 – Fundraising thoughts