Case study · Capital markets
Karmeq
ESG focused stock gifting and investment, built inside US broker dealer rules.
- Client
- Karmeq
- Service
- UX/UI, web and backend, architecture
- Sector
- Capital markets
- Regulated
- FINRA and SEC approved
At a glance
What makes it different
A regulated broker dealer application for the US market, not a simulated trading experience.
Each holding's ESG rating sits in the buying decision rather than in a disclosure page nobody opens.
Shares can be given, not just bought, which is a different product than a brokerage with a gift button.
Account opening compressed into a guided three step flow inside a regulated onboarding process.
The brief
Compliance and simplicity pulling in opposite directions
A regulated brokerage has two audiences that want incompatible things. The regulator wants disclosure, verification and an auditable process. The user wants to give their nephew some Apple shares without reading a prospectus.
The brief was an interface balancing ease of use against genuinely complex financial functionality, keeping transactions seamless while satisfying FINRA and SEC requirements. Neither side can be traded away: a confusing product does not get used, and a non-compliant one does not get to exist.
ESG buried in a disclosure page is a compliance artefact. ESG in the decision is a product.
The build
Designing inside a regulatory envelope
The interesting constraint here is that most of the difficulty is invisible in the finished product. A regulated broker dealer application carries verification, disclosure and audit requirements at nearly every step, and the design problem is absorbing those without the user experiencing them as friction.
Making ESG ratings part of portfolio building is the product's actual thesis. Plenty of platforms disclose ESG data; putting it where the decision happens changes what the platform is for. Combined with gifting as a first-class action, it targets a different investor than a conventional trading app does.
Wow Labz provided UX/UI design, web and backend development, architecture, and digital marketing.
What it does
Three things at once
Trade and gift
Buying and selling sit alongside gifting shares to someone else, treated as a primary action rather than an afterthought bolted onto a brokerage.
ESG ratings in view
Environmental, social and governance ratings are integrated into portfolio building, so the ethical position of a holding is visible at the point of choosing it.
Compliant by construction
FINRA and SEC requirements are handled inside the flows rather than as a wall of consent screens around them.
Stack
What it was built with
Questions
Karmeq, answered
What is Karmeq?
A FINRA and SEC approved broker dealer application for the US market. Users gift stocks and build portfolios with the ESG rating of each holding central to the decision.
What does FINRA and SEC approved mean here?
It is a regulated brokerage application, so verification, disclosure and audit requirements apply throughout. The design challenge was absorbing those into the flows rather than presenting them as a wall of consent screens.
How is ESG handled?
Environmental, social and governance ratings are integrated into portfolio building, visible at the point a user chooses a holding rather than buried in a disclosure page.
What did Wow Labz do?
UX/UI design, web development, backend development, architecture and digital marketing.
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