Coffee with Ahmed Gaballah, founder and CEO of Sokna: In part one of our conversation with Gaballah — which you can check out here — we discussed Sokna’s upcoming cemetery project, the technology push planned for 2026, and how the company is preparing for global expansion. In part two, we dive deeper into how the funeral services startup looks to partner with hospitals, embassies, and others to expand, how they’ve worked to build trust with clients, and what’s next for the company.

EnterpriseAM: You’ve built a strong network of partnerships. How did that happen?

Ahmed Gaballah: Sokna is purpose-driven before anything else. We don’t do partnerships for the sake of business. We focus on three values, the first of which is accessibility, by serving different financial and social segments.

Second is cultural respect. Public figures and artists who contributed to society deserve funerals that reflect their value, always with the family’s full approval. The family decides, but honoring these individuals matters to us as a community.

Third, building a service that can work beyond Egypt. We don’t copy models country by country. We study similarities — religion, culture, legal frameworks — and expand responsibly.

Today, we operate in most major hospitals across Greater Cairo. Corporate partnerships came next, but at first, we underestimated them. Traditionally, companies supported employees during happy moments — marriage, childbirth. Over time, they realized that standing by employees during loss builds long-term loyalty. That’s when companies began reaching out to us.

We also partnered with embassies for cross-border cases, and with professional syndicates — including the Actors’ Syndicate and the Journalists’ Syndicate — to manage funerals for members and public figures with coordination and dignity.

Over seven years, we estimate we’ve helped around 1 mn people inside and outside Egypt. People are often surprised by that, but the data is public. Our customer satisfaction rate is 99.5%, based on feedback from 74% of users. More importantly, our NPS is 98.9 — a figure that’s rare globally. That’s the engine behind our organic growth.

EnterpriseAM: You don’t see numbers like that often.

Gaballah: You don’t. It means almost every customer becomes a promoter. Out of every 100 people who use Sokna, 99 actively recommend it. Operationally, we grew 31% in services. Today, 63% of people know Sokna organically. We no longer chase hospitals — they come to us. Revenue from individuals grew 84%. Revenue from companies, syndicates, and embassies grew threefold. They pay on behalf of employees and members. That’s institutional trust. If they didn’t see value, they wouldn’t pay.

Sixty percent of customers choose the most comprehensive package — permits, certificates, cemetery preparation, everything. People don’t outsource the full experience unless they see real value. Pre-planning revenue also grew 34%. People are now booking services in advance.

EnterpriseAM: What’s next?

Gaballah: There’s two tracks. Firstly, technology products that serve people inside and outside Egypt.

Second, the cemetery project. We’ve opened registration of interest because people are already asking to book. It gives them early access once we launch. Demand is clearly there.

We don’t just want “better cemeteries.” We want integrated management, integrated services, sustainability, and a qualitative improvement in how services are delivered — in a humane way suitable for all segments.

Our design and project are based on solving problems we’ve tracked for seven years: operational requirements from real operations, global best practices, religious practices that must be present, and specialized management. Otherwise, any real estate developer could just build a few structures — one of the core problems today.

The project solves basics: security and safety, accessibility, parking, maintenance, and bathrooms. It also solves capacity planning. At peak times, multiple funerals in the same area block access and create traffic. We looked at it from the perspective of funeral attendees, visitors over time, and other users, and included what services will exist inside the cemeteries.

EnterpriseAM: Is Sokna your life’s project?

Gaballah: I see life in stages. I started with horse training in the US, then technology and real estate, then Sokna. This stage gave me purpose and energy. There may be another stage later after we’ve achieved maximum impact here. There’s a long runway. Cemeteries and technology are long-term plays in Egypt and globally. The real question is whether we can build something here that becomes the standard elsewhere.

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