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Thndr, the Cairo-based investment platform, has received initial approval to conduct securities brokerage activities in Saudi Arabia, CEO Ahmad Hammouda told Asharq Business, with a launch targeted for the first quarter of 2027 once final regulatory approvals are secured.
The company has also submitted a formal application to the Central Bank of Egypt for a prepaid card in partnership with Visa and Suez Canal Bank, which would allow users to make payments and instant withdrawals and deposits once final approvals are granted.
Founded by Hammouda and Seif Amr and launched in late 2020, Thndr allows customers to trade stocks and gold and invest in mutual funds, with a sister app, Rumble, offering subscription-based financial advice. Hammouda, a former investment banker who served as general manager of Uber Egypt before leaving in 2019 to build the platform, pitched the idea of "a brokerage without brokers" to his employers in 2016 and was turned down, a rejection he has since described as a favour.
The company has raised a total of $37.8 million across four rounds from backers including Y Combinator, Prosus Ventures and Tiger Global. Revenue grew from $120k in 2021 to $8 million in 2024, according to the company, and the app has been downloaded more than 5.5 million times, with funded accounts climbing to 700,000 this year from 500,000 in 2025.
The company says the average customer is 30 to 32 years old, 80% are first-time investors, around half come from outside Cairo and Alexandria, and 12% are women. Thndr topped the 2026 FT-Statista ranking of Africa's Fastest Growing Companies published this week, per the FT.
The 2023 currency crisis proved a turning point for the platform, with investors moving into stocks and gold in search of returns after the pound's devaluation sent inflation soaring and eroded the value of savings locked in certificates of deposit. The shift is visible in exchange data with the EGX recording 164,000 new registrations in the first quarter of 2026, up 200% year-on-year, against a last published total of 740,000 registered investors in 2023.
Saudi Arabia is one piece of a wider regional plan. Thndr already holds a brokerage licence in Abu Dhabi and has applied in Dubai, with Hammouda targeting a presence in seven markets by 2030, including Iraq, Morocco and Bahrain, and pointing to the Arab Federation of Exchanges' 16 capital markets, roughly 1,600 tickers and $4.4 trillion in combined market cap as the long-term prize of a unified regional platform.
The move adds to a run of Egyptian fintechs building beyond their home market: Valu entered Jordan with its BNPL offering last year in its first move outside Egypt, while MNT-Halan, which reached a $1.4 billion valuation this week, operates across Türkiye, Pakistan and the UAE.
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