الإمارات العربية المتحدة
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أكثر من 500 زميل
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أكثر من 500 زميل
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكSarwa's AUM growth makes it look like a smooth ride. I’d like to take you back to 2017. Wartime 2017 Jad and I applied from MTL and got into a 3-month accelerator in Dubai. We raised $220k. We weren’t sure how to put it all together. Banks said it wouldn’t work. I gave talks on the 4 rules of investing, while my credit card debt grew. Yet each day showed us the huge need for Sarwa. After 3 months, we became the first fintech to get licensed in the UAE. 2018 We launched our beta and celebrated. We raised $1.3 million and hired our founding team. While we received congrats, we had tears about having 10 clients and $50,000 in AUM. We felt like imposters. During our December board, our metrics puzzled our investors. We had onboarded 9 customers in november. Painfully slow. 2019 We hit $1 million in AUM. Woo. We fit in one room and made a list of customer pain points. This helped us improve our onboarding experience. We started raising our Series A, but VCs saw fintech as too risky. Our $1,000+ CAC was a tough sell. We felt stretched thin, and the stress affected our cofounder relationships. So we met at Nadine's house to define our Sarwa Values. Trust was the top choice. We knew the ride would be bumpy, so we committed to treating each other the best way possible. We closed our $8.4 million Series A led by KIPCO. Oxygen at last. Peacetime 2020-2021 Covid hit. The market dropped by 30%. We adapted quickly and found remote work was our favorite way to operate. We offered support from 9 AM to 1 AM as a distributed, self-managed team. Then the market rebounded. We launched our mobile app and free transfers. As founders, we also learned to make harder decisions faster. We removed a toxic board member. We reached $50 million AUM. We closed our Series B with Mubadala in Q1 2021. It coincided with my wedding that summer, and everything felt right. By Nov 2021, we launched our new strategic pivot: Sarwa Trade, self-directed trading. We had cracked it and were ready for hyper-growth. Wartime 2022-2024 Russia-Ukraine war, a market crash, and a VC pause. Tech layoffs everywhere. Survival was the new growth. Investing was no longer a top priority, so we saved our marketing dollars for better times. We also went through a rite of passage every fintech eventually faces: painful regulatory lessons. But our investors and team were there for us when many founders were running out of energy. We kept building, and Sarwa Trade was no longer basic. Then suddenly, the AI narrative took shape. Hello NVDA. We were finally at the right place at the right time with a broad offering. We hit profitability in 2024. Peacetime (for Sarwa, not the world) 2025-Now We had another profitable 2025 and doubled client assets in just 18 months. Starting a business is hard. Staying in it when things get tough, slow or boring is just as important. Sarwa is turning out to be our life’s work, and we’re just getting started.
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكSarwa crossing $1 billion in client assets during a regional conflict caught the CNBC's attention. Dan Murphy's first question was, "What accelerated this growth?" He described it as a "ski ramp." We took 7 years to reach our first $500 million in assets and only 18 months to get to the next $500 million. The first part took time because many people didn’t know they could invest, how to invest, or whom to trust. In our region, only about 6% were investing in stocks, according to WEF. Building trust with clients took a ton of conversations and small decisions. Our product offering evolved along side our clients. Their investment knowledge grew over time. As they became more confident, many wanted a more active investing platform. The first part of our journey was about making investing simple. The second part was about becoming a one-stop app for serious wealth building. Sarwa accelerated by gaining backing from major institutional investors like Mubadala, DIFC, Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) - KIPCO, Shorooq 500 Global Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and a strong list of other backers that would have taken a while to cover on air. This credibility resonated with clients. They often check the fine print: who backs the company, where it's regulated, and if they can trust it with their wealth. Over time, Sarwa’s roots in the DIFC ecosystem and our current 100% regulation in ADGM helped build that trust. However, this only goes so far. The product and team execution must wow clients by delivering a great trading platform, and great service. This enabled clients to take smart investment decisions with their money and performed really well. They’ve gained over $200 million, creating significant wealth. And that's excluding withdrawals for profit taking and buying homes. That wealth creation really makes us proud. We also addressed the regional conflict. Are people pulling back or leaning in? Current data shows that nothing is stopping retail investors. When the conflict began, we were cautious about drawing quick conclusions. We analyzed actual behaviors and found no panic. Account openings surged, and deposits hit all-time highs. People invested more and diversified into commodities alongside tech. Retail investors are often seen as emotional or short-term, but I've learned that their behavior is mainly discipline and focus on long-term gains. The community's response to the $1b has been overwhelming. A big thank you to everyone celebrating this milestone with us. We received many messages from clients and friends, expressing pride, connection and trust in Sarwa. PS: Wearing a tie or sport coat couldn’t hide that I barely slept before the interview. It followed a successful announcement and a night with a newborn and toddler partying.
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكBREAKING: Sarwa ثروة CROSSES $1B IN CLIENT ASSETS. Our biggest milestone yet! It took us ~7 years to reach our first $500m in client assets. The next $500m took just 18 months. This is a major moment for retail investors in MENA, and a testament to years of focused work from the amazing Sarwa team. Smart investors trusted us with $1B of their hard-earned money. That comes with a deep sense of responsibility and gratitude. Thank you to our clients, team, investors, regulators, partners, and everyone who believed in Sarwa early and spread the good word. We are still in the very early days. We will never stop making investing better, and helping people build their Sarwa ثروة. Next stop: $10B.
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكI wish I started earlier. That’s something I often hear from new dads in their 30s. The joy of children seems to take us by surprise. I also had a wrong idea about what it's like to be a parent. The freedoms I feared losing and the responsibility, pale in comparison to the joy Mateo brings. Life didn't stop, it took another level. Like a black and white movie turning into color. It's been the best years of my life, and I feel like the luckiest man to grow our family with the beautiful Wendy Sfeir ☀️. Nicholas, we are ready for you! And both Tetas are in town to meet you and support.
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Mark Chahwan أعاد نشر ذلكSomething I genuinely like about working at Sarwa ثروة is how seriously we take client feedback. We kept hearing the same thing, our clients wanted a simple way to check if a stock is Shariah-compliant 🌙📈 without jumping between tools… so we just built it into the app. The in-app Shariah screener is now live, and honestly, it makes things way easier. Curious to see how people end up using it. #Sarwa #HalalInvesting #BuildingTheFutureMark Chahwan أعاد نشر ذلكIntroducing Shariah Screener on Sarwa Trade 🕵️ Halal investors have always had to do the research themselves. Cross-referencing stocks, second-guessing revenue streams, wondering if what you want to buy passes the screen. It adds a whole layer of work before you even place a trade. Not anymore. Enable it once in settings and a Halal badge will appear on every compliant asset across the app. Each one comes with a full compliance report, powered by Musaffa, so you know exactly where something stands before you invest. This one's for you. We hear everything. Update your Sarwa Trade app to find it waiting for you in settings. 😉
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكThis is the 1-page marketing strategy we shared during Mubadala's due diligence for our $15M Series B.
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكSarwa customers have now made over $200 million in gains on the platform! Meaningful liquid wealth, built over time by everyday investors. It's one of my favourite parts of building Sarwa. Seeing what investors can achieve when they have access to a simple platform and great service. The team is buzzing from the value we're delivering to our community. Imagine what these gains can become over 10, 20, or 30 years of compounding, with strong deposit habits, and hopefully more stability in the region.
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكSharing the Q1 2026 Update with Sarwa surging to ~$900m AUM. 📊 31,000+ new registered users 📈 AUM surged to ~$900M ⭐ 4.6 Google rating from 633 reviews 🤝 We navigated a regional AWS outage with full recovery and backlog cleared within 24 hours 📱 On the product side: - Advanced Trade Web moved closer to launch - We expanded smarter tools like portfolio analytics, Shariah screening, and market data infrastructure - We strengthened security and improved the funding experience - AI adoption scaled through workshops, champions, and company-wide policies 🥇 On the brand and community side: - We launched our largest brand campaign yet across major UAE locations - Hosted the Sarwa Wealth Summit with hundreds o attendees representing - Grew our content and education engine through AMAs, podcasts, newsletters, advisory sessions, and 71 short-form videos - Sarwa ranked #1 across AI platforms in visibility and share of voice And to support the next phase, we added 9 new hires across CX, Tech, Product, and Advisory. - My favourite customer feedback: “I’ve had a great experience with Sarwa overall. The platform is easy to use, well-structured, and makes investing feel clear and accessible without unnecessary complexity. What really stood out for me was the support and professionalism of Amen Ghebre. Amen was extremely helpful, responsive, and patient in answering my questions and guiding me through the process. He made everything smooth and gave me confidence that I’m dealing with a serious and trustworthy team. Highly recommended — especially if you’re looking for a reliable investment platform backed by excellent customer service.” - Anas Proud of what the team built this quarter. More to come in Q2. 🚀 ➡️ Full update here: https://lnkd.in/eaY6SfVs
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Mark Chahwan شارك ذلكSharing the Sarwa ثروة Seed deck that raised $220K - the first PPT that started it all. I’ve included some insights from the process. Context In 2017, Jad and I were still in Montreal. Unlike other startup ideas we had explored, building Sarwa felt different. Our excitement only grew over the months. We believed making investing easy was imporant, especially for our friends and family in the Middle East. High fees and account minimums made wealth building difficult. The existing interfaces were clunky. Investors in the region deserved a world-class experience like those in Canada and the US. We had a unique advantage. Jad and I have been friends since high school. He worked as a software engineer at a high-speed hedge fund, while I was a management consultant at Accenture. We understood the region, having grown up in Beirut. Although we loved our jobs, we felt Sarwa was too important to ignore. We worked on it in the evenings and on weekends. Then, the UAE announced its first fintech accelerator with Accenture. It felt like the universe was giving us a sign. Samer encouraged me to focus on Sarwa instead of pursuing my MBA. He became the first to commit to invest. The MBA could wait; this was a unique chance to tackle a major problem as regulations evolved. Fortunately, Jad's connections introduced us to Shane and Mahmoud, who were starting Shorooq as a regional VC. They believed in the vision and committed to leading our seed round. We quickly "designed" a logo, this deck and a prototype, and expanded our round to our parents and friends who believed in us Pierre Marwa Maher Jocelyne Elie Kamal and Jad's family. This was before Nadine joined us as a co-founder once we arrived in the UAE (that's a story for another post). My Learnings Strong Slides - Focused on a clear problem with a narrow vision for digital advice. It’s different from where we are now, but this focus helped us see a realistic path while being ambitious. - The problem we’re solving remains relevant. Today, Sarwa addresses both self-directed and wealth management needs. - Our target market shows an underserved millennial with a high savings rate, and poorly ranked banks. - The "First 100 Days" slide created momentum and showed our focus on quick innovation. Slides to Add/Improve - "Why Now" Slide: The "evolving regulatory landscape" is there but can be stronger - Acquisition Channels - Use of Proceeds/Ask Other notes - Titles like "CEO" and "CTO" felt unearned and are missing; I would clarify roles to investors. - We didn’t have a financial model. - For newcomers to the UAE: clarify if the angel investor is committing "100k" in AED or USD. - Small round = Fast close. But a $500K round would've been better, we had $0 salaries which was painful. I hope this helps you raise your own round!
Mark Chahwan قام بالتعليق على منشور
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wow that's so good! Thank you Hamzeh for the gesture. We did something similar with the consulting firms when we started out but didn't go all out with our faces on the cake 😂 . I will DM you.
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Mark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكMark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكI'm trying something new. After a year in the DeFi trenches, I wrote an article about how crypto investors are having to settle on unreliable data to compute their investment performance. And what we're doing at PennyWorks to change that. I hope you like it!
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Mark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكMark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكUAE-based Sarwa ثروة becoming the first homegrown fintech to reach $1bn in assets is a much bigger story than just one company hitting a milestone. What will be interesting to watch next is whether the GCC follows Europe’s shift away from traditional advice-led investing towards discretionary model portfolio ecosystems. In Europe, platforms like Scalable Capital , eToro , Trading 212 , Nutmeg and Moneyfarm helped accelerate the move towards centrally managed portfolios, ETFs and scalable digital advice. Sarwa’s growth suggests the GCC may now be entering a similar phase.
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Mark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكMark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكI’m always very excited 🩷 about our Alpaca Partner Summit, because it’s one of the few moments where so many of our friends, partners, founders, and Alpaca investors and team members from completely different countries and cultures get to spend real quality time together in a very down-to-earth and intimate setting 👯 . (For this year, it will be in Lisbon, Portugal 🇵🇹! https://lnkd.in/eUmJaaBh) Of course, we discuss the product roadmap, market structure, AI, tokenization, and where things are going 🤓. And very importantly, there are always honest and vulnerable conversations around what is actually working, what is difficult, what we are struggling with, and what we believe will or will not change over the long term 🧘. Last year in Kyoto ⛩️ (pics attached), we experienced ourselves openly sharing very different perspectives shaped by our own local markets and experiences, and I felt that we learned a lot from each other, including ourselves at Alpaca 🦙. This Alpaca Partnership Summit is really about building genuine relationships and friendships with people who are all trying to build and push this industry forward in their own unique way. Those relationships truly matter in what we do. Very excited for Lisbon this year 🇵🇹 🌟 ---> https://lnkd.in/eUmJaaBh
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Mark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكMark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكPeter Charles Turner asked me this fantastic question last week… ‘After everything you have learnt about leadership what are the 3 things that leaders need to learn about themselves?’ #3 “Can we build environments where people become better?” Recently I hosted an ‘Unleash Your Strengths’ session for Sarwa ثروة - I have had the pleasure of coaching CEO and Founder Mark Chahwan for the past 5 years. I am so proud of what Mark, Nadine Mezher and Jad Sayegh have achieved. The mistake I think would be to focus on the outcome… $US1 Billion is amazing BUT the real achievement for me is… The System The greatest leaders do not just drive performance. They build ecosystems that multiply people. Mediocre leaders extract. Great leaders expand. The question for me is always; ⬆️ Do people grow around them? ⬆️ Do they become more confident? ⬆️ More accountable? ⬆️ More capable? ⬆️ More courageous? ⬆️ More connected to purpose? Great leadership is less about being the smartest person in the room… More about creating rooms where people thrive. This requires: ⚡️Psychological safety and high standards ⚡️Challenge and care ⚡️Accountability and belief It is the combination our coaches at 2b Limitless and 2b Limitless Australia and New Zealand speak about often: “Care Personally. Challenge Directly” The extraordinary leaders like Mark, Nadine and Jad create; 🔥Clarity of Direction 🔥Rhythm of ‘Great Weeks’ 🔥Trust in the Middle 🔥Standards - Refusing to walk past the ‘little big things’ 🔥Rituals that Anchor 🔥Meetings that Matter 🔥Space to Create 🔥Environments where people can do the best work of their lives. The deeper truth for us at 2b Limitless and 2b Limitless Australia and New Zealand Most leadership development focuses on: * Strategy * Finance * Operations * Presentations * Productivity Important ‘baselines’ but massively incomplete. The transformational shift happens when leaders learn: 1. A focus on Strengths 2. Self-Awareness 3. Emotional Impact 4. Human Multiplication People rarely remember the leader’s spreadsheets. They remember: 🔥How the leader made them feel… 🔥What they helped them believe… 🔥Who they became because of them. For 2b Limitless… Great leaders create clarity. Exceptional leaders create belief. Legendary leaders like the leaders at Sarwa ثروة create an eco-system of ‘Strengths - Engagement - Performance - Transformation’ - Through strengths as a foundation, the rhythm and tempo of great rituals, meetings that matter and space to create. ‘Because… Your world needs you at your best!’ - 2b Limitless and 2b Limitless Australia and New Zealand #greatleadership
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Mark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكMark Chahwan تفاعل مع ذلكSarwa (ثروة), one of the GCC’s most recognized investment and personal finance platforms, has surpassed $1 billion in client assets, becoming the first UAE-founded fintech to achieve this milestone. Sarwa ثروة, DIFC, Mark Chahwan, Jad Sayegh, Mohammad Alblooshi, ADGM, Arvind Ramamurthy #Sarwa #Fintech #UAE #GCC #WealthManagement #Investment #DigitalFinance #Milestone
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