SME story: Interview with Ziad Toqan, founder of Leap

SME story: Interview with Ziad Toqan, founder of Leap

I moved to Dubai after a stint in New York with a leading marketing agency. Dubai is a city with massive opportunities. I briefly worked for a tech startup based here and that’s where I started to really think about gaps in the market and how we could introduce something impactful in the region. After several months of researching the market and shortlisting a few potential ideas – the concept of improving financial literacy among the youth seemed most impactful. Firstly, the financial literacy rate in MENA is currently below the global average (30.5 per cent) and at the same time, smartphone adoption among youth is one of the highest in the world. It was a perfect recipe for us to come in and bridge the gap between the two. Leap’s on a mission to teach kids good money habits at an early age. The concept of an app that teaches kids money habits really came from spending time with young relatives and noticing parents were still using the points system for rewards. Basically, the same point system my parents used on my brothers and I growing up in the 90s. That was an eye-opener and I started questioning how