I am Ebrahem Anwar. I chose ethics first, and growth followed

By the time the conversation reaches scale, exits, and markets, one thing is already clear. For Ebrahem Anwar, entrepreneurship is not about momentum. It is about judgement.
Across fintech, education, and construction technology, his decisions point back to the same centre of gravity, build what matters, build it cleanly, and build it so it can outgrow you.

When asked about where it all began, Anwar traces his instincts back to his university years, long before formal titles or venture rounds entered the picture. Joining Enactus in 2010 became a practical education in risk, teamwork, and failure. Projects ranged from recycling cooking oil to speculative energy ideas, and most of them did not work. That was the point.

What stuck was not success, but exposure. Learning how to ship ideas, lose publicly, and still improve created a comfort with uncertainty that later became foundational. By the time he graduated, entrepreneurship was no longer an aspiration. It was muscle memory.

On the question of why he chose to start his own company, Anwar points to an unusual overlap. Engineering taught him how systems break. Programming taught him how they scale. Business taught him how incentives shape behaviour. He recognised that those three lenses rarely sit in one head.

That realisation triggered urgency. Waiting for permission no longer made sense. If he was going to test whether that combination had value, it had to be now. The decision was not romantic. It was practical.

Pressed on trust in digital gold and silver, Anwar is direct. Platforms do not create trust. People do. At Sabika, transparency starts with visibility, investors, governance, licences, and Sharia scholars who are known by name.

Licensing from national authorities and open communication with customers are not marketing tactics, they are operating principles. Users return because they understand what they bought, where it is stored, and why the system works. Recommendation, he argues, is the only metric that matters.

When the conversation turns to mentorship, his advice to founders is consistent and blunt. Start small. Build an MVP. Learn what users actually do, not what you hope they will do.

He has seen too many early-stage companies burn capital chasing perfection. Overbuilding becomes a substitute for learning. The founders who survive are those who treat every release as an experiment and every mistake as data.

Asked to reflect on his exit from Elmawkaa, Anwar reframes the idea of departure. Companies are not children. They are vehicles. Knowing when to exit is as important as knowing when to persist.

The acquisition forced him to confront emotional attachment and replace it with strategic thinking. More importantly, it freed cognitive and operational space to move into a larger arena. Exiting well, he believes, is a form of responsibility.

On the question of values, Anwar draws a clear line. Sharia compliance is not a filter applied at the end. It is the foundation. If doubt exists, the project does not proceed.

Walking away from profitable opportunities has become routine. He frames this not as sacrifice, but as protection. Consistency builds trust internally and externally, and trust compounds faster than revenue.

When asked whether the region is ready for digital investment in precious metals, his answer is unequivocal. Demand was latent. Sabika simply met it. Sales figures reached hundreds of millions of Egyptian pounds within months, without heavy marketing spend.

Currency volatility, mobile-first behaviour, and distrust of speculative assets created the conditions. Technology removed friction. Timing did the rest.

On the origins of Sabika, Anwar is clear that he was not there at inception. He joined first as a consultant, then as a believer. The founders had already identified the gap. What they needed was execution at scale.

Leaving his role in Saudi Arabia to return to Egypt was a calculated decision. The problem was large enough. The impact was real. That made the risk acceptable.

Asked about execution, Anwar describes a dual-track approach. Continuous consultation with scholars and strict adherence to AAOIFI standards on one side. On the other, a technical system that mirrors physical ownership down to pricing, allocation, and storage.

Partnerships with licensed custodians ensure that digital convenience never replaces physical reality. The technology exists to reveal truth, not obscure it.

When the conversation turns to career breadth, Anwar admits the cost. Each sector reset required learning from zero. But patterns emerged. Engineering logic transferred. Programming discipline carried over. Market thinking matured.

The diversity was exhausting, but cumulative. By the time he stepped into fintech, the toolkit was complete.

On future plans, the roadmap is measured. Business customers in Egypt first. Gulf expansion follows, starting with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Education layers, subscriptions, and decision-support tools come next.

Growth, he insists, should feel earned.

Asked about legacy, Anwar returns to systems. He wants founders to understand how to build correctly, how to protect themselves, and how to think beyond ego. His writing and courses are extensions of that belief.

A large company would be welcome. A principled ecosystem would be better.