Dalia Kamar: Taking Stock here, live from Money20/20 Middle East. I’m Dalia Kamar, head of investor and startup programs at Money20/20 Global, and I’m joined by a guest who is not too familiar with [unclear: “Closing Bells”]. This is Hisham Jazzar, the general manager at THNDR Saudi Arabia. Welcome to the show.
Hisham Jazzar: Thank you, Dalia. Excited to be here.
Dalia Kamar: For those who aren’t too familiar with THNDR, can you tell us a little bit about what you’re up to and what you’re building?
Hisham Jazzar: For sure. THNDR is an investment app built for everyday retail individuals and traders across the Arab world. We started the company in 2020, targeting Egypt, and today we’re the largest stockbroker in Egypt. We move roughly 40% of the orders on the Egyptian stock exchange. And we’re coming for the region. We’re excited by the regional opportunity. Our dream has always been to create one app that connects people to markets across the Arab world, and we’re really strong believers in Arab local capital markets. We do offer US capital markets, but our mission is to drive more towards local companies that are innovating and building great businesses, because we believe they could be a good place for people to invest and save their money. We’re backed by some of the biggest investors in the world.
Dalia Kamar: Tiger Global, Prosus’s first investment in the region, right?
Hisham Jazzar: Absolutely. Yeah, I believe so. Tiger Global, Prosus Ventures, BECO Capital, [unclear: “Rabo Partners”; likely Raed Ventures], Y Combinator all believed in us.
Dalia Kamar: Great. Good company.
Hisham Jazzar: Thank you. We raised roughly $37 million from these names, and we launched in the UAE last year. We’re working towards launching in Saudi Arabia and continuing to [unclear: “dabble”] in our investment universe, [unclear: “so developing our capital markets by our local talent”].
Dalia Kamar: And I mean, we met a decade ago, or I don’t know if we just gave away our ages there, but when I met you in the Bay Area, it was for a very different kind of approach, bringing local talent to American markets. And now, [unclear: “having so much have seen so much success in your education”] in the Bay Area, what made you feel like, you know what, it’s my time to come back to Saudi Arabia and build this business here?
Hisham Jazzar: After 12 years in the States, it was time to come home. I learned so much, and I’m so grateful for my experience in venture capital in the United States. It was terrific. I got to work with some of the best people in the technology business. But I’m really motivated by doing more for my country, doing more for my people, and so I was very excited to move back. A lot of people were actually pushing me towards venture capital, but it didn’t feel like there was a problem there as I went through it with first principles thinking. I realized there’s no problem in the regional venture capital scene. Me coming in and raising a new fund, or joining a fund and introducing new capital, isn’t really going to change things. I felt that the problem was really at the public level, and I don’t think that enough people who have these startup mental models or technology mental models are working on public market problems. I think that solving those problems should pull and graduate more companies into the public market, into the big leagues, as we call them, and allow people to participate in their growth story and use the funding of these people to drive the next Amazon, next Apple coming from the region, inshallah.
Dalia Kamar: That’s it for today on Taking Stock. Hisham, thank you so much, and I wish you the best of luck with everything you’re building at THNDR.
