Words: Sophia Dyer
Photographer: Daniel Asater
Stylist:Beagy Zielinski
Grooming: Iryna Soltaninia
Styling Assistant: Marie Meyer

Tech entrepreneurs have an air – particularly those in the app space. It’s a presence that is both unassuming and powerful at the same time. Perhaps it’s their cerebral mastery of something the rest of us desperately rely on but don’t really understand (at least, not like them). Regardless, think of a young, Dubai-based tech entrepreneur who carries this presence – the image your mind conjures up will probably be somewhat close to Abdallah Abu Sheikh. 

“I’ve always been a pragmatic person,” says the Jordanian entrepreneur. “I’ve never been a fan of wasting time,” he adds hastily. This is a fact that becomes evident on the rare blue September morning we spend shooting this cover story at the S/O Uptown. 

Arriving on set inconspicuously, Abdallah, keen to fit in work between shots, has a twitchy, almost obsessive compulsion with his phone, speeding through emails and a few brief calls with his employees back at the Astra Tech office. Smiling up at the camera between rapid texts and scrolls, it’s clear that the man means business. 

Leading the technology holding group for consumer apps, he launched Astra Tech back in 2022 after acquiring the calling app BOTIM, of which he is now the CEO. Recently named LinkedIn’s Top UAE Start-up of the Year, the company is made up of four entities – Barq, BOTIM, PayBy and Rizek. This tech ‘ecosystem’ has received $500 million in investments. For a man who hasn’t reached his third decade yet, Abdallah has already led a storied career.

However, his first job was rather short-lived. “I was studying finance between the US and Canada when I got my first job at Tim Hortons,” he says, adding with a knowing smile, “It only lasted three days.” Realising that being employed wasn’t for him, the young entrepreneur started his first business. “I launched a homework-selling operation. I had about 250 people doing the work,” he says. After he sold it on to fellow students, it wasn’t long before the professors got wind of the enterprise and shut it down. 

“Football was the main focus, though,” he explains. “I got scouted to the NCAA very early on and was on my way to becoming a professional. But then my father passed away, and I had to stop.” Up until this point, Abdallah’s father had founded one of the largest airlines in the region. “He built it from scratch, it had taken maybe 25 to 30 years”, says the now serial entrepreneur. 

Despite attending boarding school in England from a young age, which shaped him to be “extremely independent”, it’s clear that losing his father early in life was a seminal moment for Abdallah. “He wasn’t concerned with giving us an inheritance, but instead he gave us a set of principles to help us build ourselves in the future. I think he was a very good teacher in that sense,” he explains stoically. “When he passed away, it (the airline business) didn’t go very well, it became a bit of a soap opera. I had to find a way to exit the business, which I did.” 

Abdallah was in his early twenties at this point. He moved to Africa, where the airline was based, and started working in renewable energy. “In about three years, we built around 800 megawatts of projects, which totalled almost $800 million of renewable energy projects that we sold.” 

Having made enough money to retire, the 22-year-old decided to pack it in and move to the UAE to relax and find a few investments. Of course, for someone with an innate need to create and a fire sparked by his father’s legacy, it wasn’t long before Abdallah came out of retirement. 

“I started looking at technology and realised there’s a lot more to be done when it comes to digital sovereignty,” he shares. While meeting people in his capacity as an angel investor, there was a chemical reaction of sorts. 

“When you’re meeting with founders of companies, two things happen,” he begins. “First, it’s infectious. The energy is really strong and motivating. Second, you start to see the problems people aren’t solving, the things people aren’t paying attention to. That’s the motive to start building in that space.”

After launching (and selling) a few tech apps, including marketplace service app Ritex and electric mobility platform Barq EV for bikes, Abdallah established Astra Tech. The problem he was planning to solve? “I noticed people were getting app fatigue,” he reflects. “I started thinking about how people need a single platform, as opposed to having to conduct their daily life with multiple [apps]. That’s when the idea came up.” Launched in 2022, the company was built to encompass all his apps.

It was at this point that the opportunity to invest in BOTIM arose. “We were looking at a platform with a sizeable number of users, with a very straightforward user interface that presents itself as the WhatsApp equivalent for the region. So, we said, ‘Yes.’ It’s a communications platform we actually wanted to build around.” 

Keeping his ambitions high, Abdallah and his team began trying to create the region’s first ultra app. “We wanted to connect people – not only socially through calls but also financially,” the entrepreneur says excitedly. “So, we built in our wallet proposition, which very quickly became the biggest wallet in the UAE.” 

It allowed users to transfer money to local and international accounts without a bank account or Emirates ID. Not only did this make users’ experience seamless, it also meant that BOTIM became a way for people who don’t earn enough to open a bank account to send money home. 

This changed the lives of many working in the country. “Seventy-five per cent of the people that use our financial services were never in the banking system before,” says Abdallah. “When I hear people say, ‘This is the first time I’ve been able to send money to my mother,’ I feel very proud,” he smiles – although he is quick to point out the pressure this adds on him. “Our platform cannot collapse,” he says. “People aren’t ordering taxis; they’re sending their salaries back home, so we take this commitment very seriously.”

In pursuit of continuing to improve the lives of their app users, Astra Tech introduced the world’s first Arabic GPT – a regional-language version of Chat GPT – in 2023. “We wanted to have users start texting all their needs into the BOTIM GPT. For example, say things like ‘send money to my mum’ or ‘book me a table at this restaurant’,” shares Abdallah. Targeted at those less technologically dexterous, the text request option within the app has been designed to make getting things done easier. 

“Instead of going to a restaurant’s website, finding a number and calling, you can do it with one simple text. We believe this will help people make their transactions a lot quicker.”

 One thing that is evident when talking to Abdallah is that his customers are at the core of each decision he makes. “I honestly believe if users can say, ‘If not for this business, I don’t know how I would do that,’ then you’re doing a very good job,” he says matter-of-factly. The CEO has been named on several regional power lists and Astra Tech has been winning awards, but Abdallah humbly brushes praise away. 

“The recognition just is a by-product of building a good product,” he says. “We don’t sit around the office and say, ‘Okay, how are we going to win awards?’ We say, ‘Okay, how are we going to solve bigger issues today? How are we going to make people’s lives easier?’ This is what puts the pressure on us to continue to grow and feel proud.”

With over 400 employees working at his offices in DIFC and abroad, fostering a workplace culture is something the young CEO doesn’t necessarily agree with. “We don’t believe anything is a ‘culture’ except for execution. It simply comes down to, ‘Is something being built or not?’” states Abdallah. “Everyone who succeeds starts with the same goals and maybe even the same amount of effort. It just comes down to who executes it better, and those are the people that win.” After a pause for comic timing, he adds satirically, “So yeah, we don’t have any bean bags in the office…”

Humour is important to the father of two. Self-described as a “full-time sarcastic” in his Instagram bio, he certainly takes a light-hearted approach to life. “I think if you find people who deal with really stressful stuff all the time, they usually lose a sense of seriousness,” he notes. “While we acknowledge that problems need to be resolved, we can’t stress over every single that happens. I think the best way to do this is by being a bit sarcastic.” 

On set, it’s evident Abdallah can both make and take a joke (which is all too often rare with someone of his stature). “I feel a lot of people are uptight and that doesn’t get them far in life. In fact, quite the opposite,” he says.

So, what comes next for someone with an insatiable appetite for growth and a sense of humour to keep him grounded? “We just received a financing licence from the Central Bank, which is the first of its kind,” shares Abdallah. “This will allow us to start giving loans and financial solutions to people where the banks can’t really help them. We also look at a bunch of new markets that we’re going to launch into.” 

Needless to say, this is all under the premise that “we are going to make people’s lives a lot easier and a lot better in those places as well.” With his modus operandi being to improve the lives of people through technology, the question of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and consciousness comes up. “I think it’s already becoming sort of sentient,” Abdallah confides. “The issue here is that, until now, AI is based on the knowledge we gave it, but now it is building its own knowledge.” Clearly passionate about the subject, he adds, “This is going to develop a lot faster than humans did. Now the biggest question is, ‘What if AI goes out on its own? Could it be controlled? Are we going to be able to develop these controls around it?’ Now it’s an open race, and nobody’s putting the brakes on just yet, but on the bright side, I still believe AI is going to take over a lot of the mundane, difficult work for humans to do, which will unlock more potential in people.”

 As one of the leaders in tech in the country, the founder reflects on his role in the enhancement of AI. “This technology is what we make of it – whether we use it for good or bad. This puts a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of people who are wielding this technology. Do we prioritise financial gain and forget about everything else? Or do we try to be more reasonable with it?” he ponders. However, it’s obvious throughout the conversation that he operates within the latter school of thought.

Time is clearly something that’s very important to Abdallah, who frequently checks his watch throughout the shoot. He later tells me of his relationship with time. “I have a bit of a different philosophy around it. I believe we have to earn the time we spend with our family. It’s not a given – we have to earn it and treasure it,” the father and husband confesses. 

With his dedication to ‘earning’ leisure time and a passion for improving the world, one feels sure it’s just a matter of time before Abdallah’s tech revolution extends far beyond the UAE. 

Visit astratech.ae and follow @abdallahabusheikh on Instagram