Milestones are strange things. You chase them for years, and then one day you wake up and realise you’ve already moved past them.
This one felt worth pausing for.
It took us 7 years to get to our first $500 million in client assets, and then 18 months to get to the next $500 million.
The first $500 million took time because people didn’t know they could invest, didn’t know how, or they didn’t trust what was out there.
Afterall, we were speaking to a region where investing wasn’t always part of the conversation.
So we built. We built Sarwa and we spoke to every customer like they were the only one, because at that stage, they kind of were. Some stayed. Some left. Many came back. That first $500 million was built one account at a time.
The next $500 million didn’t feel the same. Not only was it easier and faster, but the conversations we were having with clients changed.
People weren’t asking us if they should invest anymore, they were asking where they should put their money next, do we have this feature, or that feature, and so the product changed too.
We went from building a platform for people, to building it with our clients. They shaped Sarwa as much as we were shaping people’s relationships with their money.
A big part of being able to do that, and to scale with confidence, has been the environment we’re building in. Being part of Abu Dhabi’s International Financial Centre (ADGM) has given us a strong, well-regulated foundation, one that’s aligned with global standards and designed to support companies like ours as we grow.
The $1 billion is not a number we own. It belongs to every person who trusted us with their first deposit, their second, and so on.
I know as CEO it’s my job to be forward-thinking, but 8 years ago if you’d asked me to imagine $1 billion in client assets, I would’ve said “that’s the dream.” It’s a testament to how much we’ve grown that I’m able to now say the dream is even bigger than that. It’s that we have a dream team, the trust and faith of our clients, and the people who stood by us when Sarwa only existed on a WhatsApp group chat.
If the first $500 million was about access, and the next $500 million was about momentum, this next chapter is about depth.
We’re talking about more ways to invest, better ways to trade, and smarter ways to make this part of your life.
Here’s to the next $10 billion.
With so much gratitude,
Mark Chahwan
CEO