GRO Solutions is developing an AI-powered financial education platform designed to provide personalized guidance for individuals and families across the region, moving beyond the generic and standardized financial advice commonly available today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with Inc. Arabia, GRO co-founder and CEO Mariia Shevchenko explained that the idea emerged from a simple observation: every person\u2019s financial situation is different, yet most people receive the same advice regardless of their income, habits, goals, or circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She described GRO as a judgment-free, AI-powered financial education companion that learns from each user\u2019s spending and saving behavior. The platform then transforms this information into relevant, easy-to-understand, and personalized guidance for both everyday financial decisions and major milestones, such as purchasing a first car or securing a family mortgage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than offering a general financial playbook created for someone else\u2019s lifestyle, GRO seeks to deliver guidance based on each user\u2019s actual financial reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GRO was established to address several shortcomings in the way financial education is currently delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Individuals looking for financial guidance often have limited options. They can hire a financial adviser, which may be costly and dependent on one person\u2019s knowledge, or gather information independently from different online sources that may be outdated, inconsistent, or unsuitable for their personal circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko noted that the fintech sector is evolving faster than individual advisers or traditional university courses can keep pace with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She highlighted buy-now-pay-later services as an example. Although the concept received little attention a decade ago, it has since become a global trend and is particularly popular across the GCC. However, many consumers have never received proper education on how to use these services responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Shevchenko, artificial intelligence can help bridge this gap by bringing together an individual\u2019s or family\u2019s financial behavior and delivering guidance specifically designed around it, rather than providing the same answer to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko and her team founded GRO in May 2025. The startup later joined Wave 7 of the Qatar FinTech Hub incubation program, an initiative supported by Qatar Development Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company selected Doha as its headquarters because of Qatar\u2019s regulatory environment, local community, and growing opportunities for fintech innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko described Qatar as an emerging market where the business-to-consumer fintech sector remains at a relatively early stage, creating opportunities for new companies to help shape its development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The GRO team did not want to import a financial solution designed around Western spending and saving habits and assume that it would work in the same way across the GCC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Financial behavior in the region is different, Shevchenko explained, and creating a product that respects these differences requires listening directly to the people who will use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Community engagement and users\u2019 personal financial experiences have therefore become central to the company\u2019s product development strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko moved to Doha in March after traveling regularly to Qatar during the previous year to assess the market. She emphasized that Qatar was a strategic choice from the beginning rather than an afterthought in the company\u2019s expansion plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also highlighted the accessibility of decision-makers and stakeholders in Qatar, noting that founders can often engage directly with people capable of supporting innovation and accelerating progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GRO secured investment from GrowthX Capital following an in-person meeting between Shevchenko and GrowthX Capital\u2019s Hamad Al-Hajri in Doha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko chose to travel to the city for a face-to-face discussion rather than conduct the meeting virtually. The meeting helped confirm the alignment between the two parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Shevchenko, GrowthX Capital invested in GRO because of the company\u2019s understanding of the market opportunity, the team\u2019s experience across fintech and product development, and its clearly defined growth roadmap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The investor was also attracted to the structure of the founding team. GRO was built around a group of professionals with complementary expertise, rather than relying on a single founder to manage every aspect of the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company plans to use the funding to expand its team, deepen its engagement with the local community, and continue incorporating users\u2019 financial stories and spending habits into the development of the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GRO will also work toward introducing features specifically designed for families and children, which represent an important part of its long-term vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GRO\u2019s ambitions extend beyond building a personal finance platform. The company also aims to rethink how financial literacy is taught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the long term, GRO plans to create financial education solutions specifically for children, moving away from conventional formats that rely on watching educational videos and completing quizzes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, the company wants to integrate financial literacy into the games, digital platforms, and media environments where children already spend their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko argued that interactive platforms have already demonstrated their ability to teach children basic numeracy skills. She believes the same approach can be applied to financial literacy, helping children understand money and develop responsible financial habits from an early age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alongside its focus on children and families, GRO also aims to support young adults entering the workforce for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of them experience uncertainty and anxiety when they begin managing their income, savings, and financial responsibilities independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko stressed that the platform is not designed to make financial decisions on behalf of users. Instead, it seeks to provide the clarity, information, and confidence they need to make their own informed choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company\u2019s broader mission is to make financial confidence and education more accessible to individuals from different backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shevchenko advised entrepreneurs looking to establish businesses in the region to avoid copying strategies developed for other markets and applying them without adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Successful companies in the GCC, she explained, need to build solutions that genuinely reflect the needs, behaviors, and expectations of local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also emphasized that understanding a market requires more than conducting remote research. Founders need to spend time in the country, speak directly with potential users, and understand their experiences before developing products for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her advice to entrepreneurs is to visit Qatar, explore the market, and engage with the people they intend to serve before beginning the development process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lead image features GrowthX Capital\u2019s Hamad Al-Hajri and GRO Solutions co-founder and CEO Mariia Shevchenko. All images are courtesy of GRO Solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doha-based startup GRO Solutions has secured investment from GrowthX Capital to advance its AI-powered financial education platform. The company aims to deliver personalized and accessible financial guidance tailored to the spending habits, saving patterns, and needs of individuals and families across the GCC region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":71706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8566],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71710,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71709\/revisions\/71710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}