The young computer scientist founded his fintech startup Gwala, in 2022, after his studies at the University of Stanford. With that startup, he helps firms boost productivity and retain talent.

Mossaab Abaouz (photo) is a Moroccan entrepreneur and alumnus of the University of Stanford where he studied computer science. In 2022, when he returned home after his studies, he founded Gwala, a fintech startup, which he is leading as the CEO. 

His fintech startup aims to drive financial wellness by revolutionizing salary payment and helping companies increase employee productivity, retain talent, maintain healthy cash flow, and reduce human resource workloads.

Before launching Gwala, he co-founded several D2C e-commerce platforms between 2016 and 2018. From February 2020 to January 2021, he worked as an instructor and recruiter for Addictest, an ed-tech platform that helps students get admission into international universities, in the U.S mostly.

In 2021, the tech entrepreneur made a stint, as a research assistant, at the University of Stanford. He notably "developed an original algorithm that fused multiple Convolutional Neural Networks to increase the accuracy of image classification models by an average of 3%."

Recently, his startup secured an undisclosed amount of pre-seed financing from several investors including Ingressive Capital's Maya Morgan Famodu. The financing will be used to further develop Gwala and hire new talents to support growth. 

"We’re thrilled to close this pre-seed funding round and to have the support of such a passionate group of investors. This investment will enable us to continue our mission of empowering Moroccans with the financial freedom they deserve and to build the future of work in Morocco," Abaouz said.

Melchior Koba