Will the Next Robinhood Be Born in APAC? GUGU Joins Forces with Alpaca Securities to Help New Generation Invest in U.S. Stocks

HONG KONG, Nov. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwanese fintech company GUGU recently announced new partnerships with the U.S.-based Alpaca Securities and Australia-based JB Markets to expand its U.S. stock trading app across Asia Pacific markets this year.

The strategic collaborations will enable GUGU to integrate Alpaca Securities' and JB Markets' robust brokerage capabilities. This will empower GUGU to offer young investors across the Asia Pacific an intuitive, social, and educational app to trade U.S. stocks. The company is developing services akin to those of Robinhood for the APAC region and beyond.

"GUGU focuses on creating a user-friendly product for the new generation, with a strong emphasis on gamified mobile user experience," says GUGU founder Owen Huang. "We appreciate our partners' trust in GUGU's capabilities and vision in fintech product development."

The company has a range of key advantages that give it a leg up in the APAC region. GUGU is modernizing this process with the option to invest as little as US$1. Accounts can be opened in just six minutes to the first trade, while there are no handling fees and real-time quotes. Furthermore, there are many gamified designs to make investment fun and easy.

"GUGU is unlike any of the companies we've collaborated with before," according to Peter Aardoon, the Director of JB Markets. "Their product experience design is impressive, and their bold and innovative approach can quickly catch the new generation's attention."

The startup's focus on a streamlined user-interface experience is already paying dividends in Asia, leading to over 200,000 monthly views for its GUGU Knowledge Hub and drawing over 5,000 students to its GUGU Academy investor-training service. With its free investment articles and other content featured widely in Taiwanese media, GUGU has positioned itself as an educational platform in addition to a trading service.

These strengths, among others, have helped the company to enlist prominent partners such as Alpaca Securities, which is seeking to grow its footprint in Asia through strategic collaborations.

"In recent years, Alpaca has been actively expanding into the Asian market through partnerships in Indonesia, Japan, and more," said Tarun Ajwani, Alpaca's SVP of Sales and Corporate Development. "We are delighted to have GUGU on board and hope to leverage its accumulated brand strength in Asia, as well as the team's extensive market experience in Southeast Asia, to expand Alpaca's services in the APAC market."

The company is moving quickly out the starting gate, aggressively pursuing partnerships and compliance solutions with an eye toward gaining market entry in Southeast Asian countries. Currently, GUGU is still open to additional investors as it gears up for an expected Q4 2023 launch of its comprehensive trading services. Further introduction of GUGU: https://www.gugu.fund/en

About GUGU

Founded in 2020, GUGU is an online-brokerage platform geared toward a younger generation of investors. Its mission is to promote stock education and lower investment barriers, ensuring that everyone can start investing in U.S. equities with ease.

The platform boasts a user-friendly interface, enabling trades with just a minimum of US$1, while it offers the opportunity to purchase fractional shares of renowned U.S. companies. It features zero-commission trading, real-time quotes, and no hidden fees.

GUGU also provides a wealth of educational resources, including the GUGU Academy, which has attracted over 5,000 students. The GUGU Knowledge Hub freely shares market insights, garnering over 200,000 visits monthly.

Regulated by reputable financial authorities and backed by robust security measures, GUGU is dedicated to serving the next generation of users around the world. https://www.gugu.fund/en

About Alpaca

Alpaca is a US California based developer-first API brokerage platform that supports hundreds of businesses globally. Alpaca offers stock and crypto trading, real-time market data, and end-to-end brokerage infrastructure through modern APIs.

Securities brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC ("Alpaca Securities"), member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.

Alpaca has raised over $120m in funding and is backed by top investors in the industry globally, including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Unbound, SBI Group, Eldridge, Positive Sum, Elefund, and Y Combinator. https://alpaca.markets/stocks

SOURCE GUGU