Features

A fintech wiz and she’s just getting started…

By Alison Freeland

Fall 2020/Winter 2021

Nadine Mezher (BBA ’01) could recognize the problem—financial investing in the MENA region was out of reach for the young, the non-wealthy, and most of all, for women. She was living in Dubai, having given birth to her third child, when she also recognized a solution. Two of her sister’s friends had contacted Mezher, asking for help analyzing the potential in Dubai for an online financial services company.

“They were two Lebanese men living in Canada, with extensive experience in finance,” Mezher says. “They noticed when they asked acquaintances in the MENA region about their investment strategy, the answer was usually that the person had a savings account or maybe a dream of investing in real estate. They could see how immature the investing culture was in the region.”

When Mark Chahwan and Jad Sayegh traveled to Dubai, they met with Mezher and explained their idea for an online company. It would be a full digital experience utilizing robo-advisers and featuring low-fee investing and low account minimums. As Mezher offered her help with customer insights and market segmentation, she found herself becoming passionate about the possibilities. Then the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) announced the launch of the region’s first fintech accelerator. In 2017, Chahwan and Sayegh asked Mezher to join them.

“They approached me with the proposal that I come in as a cofounder. I believed in the idea, there was the connection to the region, and the timing was right.” The result is Sarwa, an online financial adviser that “takes the hurdles out of investing, while helping you maximize returns at a risk you’re comfortable with.” The minimum to open an account is $500, they’ve already grown over 400 percent, and have 25,000 registered users. Among other accolades, Sarwa is number 28 on the Forbes “Middle East’s 50 Most-Funded Startups” list for 2020, with almost $10 million in funding. Mezher is the chief marketing officer.

“We’re trying to change the fintech mentality here,” Mezher says while listing the challenges they’ve faced. “We’re trying to make investing accessible for the young and give them a retirement plan. We’ve had to sit with regulators and the government to work on laws and regulations. We introduced full digital onboarding, facial recognition, and e-signatures, all practices that weren’t common here before, and already the landscape is different from when we started. We even have direct competition now, when before it was mainly going against big banks and real estate developers.”

Mezher is also well versed in the challenges of being a female entrepreneur. “We have to learn to voice what we bring to the table,” she says, “instead of waiting for someone else to recognize our work and give us credit. Although, in Dubai, we might have it better than elsewhere. I also have male partners, which opened doors for us. It’s encouraging that there are more women in senior positions now, and more in STEM in general, but we still have a long way to go to close the gaps.” Still, she says Sarwa’s own client base is unbalanced. “Getting more female investors is my north star. I’m very interested in financial independence for women and giving them a way to build wealth.”

Mezher says she grew up with the entrepreneurial spirit and started working in her family’s office at age 14, like the rest of her siblings. After college she accumulated fifteen years’ experience in design, marketing, and communications strategy and had already worked on projects with the government of Dubai when she met her Sarwa cofounders. According to her husband, she helped inspire him to make the leap as well. He left his job as head of strategy in the public sector and launched his own company. “We’re a dual start-up family now,” she says.

In spite of Mezher’s success with Sarwa in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the plans to expand to Saudi and beyond, Lebanon is never far from her thoughts. Having lived in many countries, from Italy, France, to the UAE, Mezher is able to adapt her approach to different market affinities. She grew up in Saudi but went back to Lebanon from age 11 to 21, which included her time at AUB.

“AUB was unique,” she says. “It’s so gorgeous and gave me such a strong sense of community and belonging. Even today when I see that logo on a LinkedIn profile, I get, I don’t know. . .”

Mezher points out that even while a student at AUB, she worked in the development office and got her first internship in a bank. It gave her a strong foundation both personally and professionally. Now, as with so many in the diaspora, Mezher marvels at the difficulties family and friends face back home and is impressed with the resilience of the young living through so much hardship.

“But at the same time, they live life to the fullest,” she says. “There’s still a joie de vivre that’s magic, maybe brought on by the struggles themselves. Or maybe it’s because Lebanon is a mid-point between
East and West.” Mezher struggles to articulate the “thing” that makes someone Lebanese. “It’s the people that define a country. The beauty of the culture is precisely that mix. That of course, plus the hospitality, family-orientation, the coffee, the food, and the music, and so much more… One day,” she says firmly, “I hope we will open Sarwa in Lebanon.”