Joining us today is Ahmad Hammouda, Co-Founder and CEO of Thndr, the digital investment platform making wealth creation more accessible across the Middle East and North Africa. From building one of Egypt's leading investing apps to expanding into the UAE from Abu Dhabi and being the first remote brokerage here at the ADX, Ahmad is helping shape how a new generation approaches saving, investing, and financial independence. Ahmad, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
Let's start with the basics. What is Thndr?
Thndr is an investment app built for everyday individuals, built on the idea that with advances in technology, providing access to generate wealth by investing in local markets in our region is actually a possibility. Thndr is licensed in Egypt from the Financial Regulatory Authority, and in Abu Dhabi from ADX and the Financial Markets Authority. We are the largest in the region in terms of downloads and activity, the largest in Egypt in terms of value and volume on the Egyptian stock market and in distributing mutual funds. And we are the first remote broker here at ADX, which we are very excited about.
Your mission is to democratise investing across the Arab world. In practical terms, what does financial independence look like for a typical user?
Our mission consists of two things. From the everyday individual's perspective, it is developing a new generation of investors who allocate a portion of their monthly income towards investing — evolving a generation from spending like there is no tomorrow into investors. The other very important aspect of what we do is sponsoring and focusing on local markets, channelling savings toward investment opportunities in our region. Financial independence for us is very simple. Whatever we offer, the end goal is not to build the next wave of millionaires or billionaires, but the next wave of those who can live life on their own terms. Investing is a means to make more money, and money is a means to live life on your own terms and achieve whatever dreams you want to achieve.
What was the strategic rationale for choosing Abu Dhabi as your regional hub?
We are very big on sponsoring local markets — that has been our DNA since day one. The Abu Dhabi exchange is one of, if not the highest performing market in the region last year, and one of the top three markets in the region in terms of market size. It was a very natural extension of our strategy. Adding to it is the strategic direction of ADX to connect the region through their middle initiative. We would also love to be part of that.
You have spoken about plans to launch in Saudi Arabia around 2027. What is the regional playbook?
Our mission is simple — our region deserves world class trading and investment capabilities on local markets. Across the globe, most trading platforms like ours focus on making it easy to invest in the US market. We are a platform that is extremely excited about making it easy to invest and trade local markets. Most of those platforms are not focused on our markets — this is actually one of the few things that we can say is quite unique to us. We believe the potential of local markets in this region is huge. Someone needs to build for this, and that someone is Thndr.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
