HustleMemo
Portrait of Saad Mohseni.

Saad Mohseni

Founder and CEO of MOBY Group, Afghanistan’s largest media company — the “Rupert Murdoch of Afghanistan” who built a media empire in a war-torn country.

MOBY Group · Media, broadcasting · est. 2002

Born in London to an Afghan diplomatic family; the family moved to Australia in 1982 after the Soviet invasion. A former investment banker, he returned to Kabul in 2002 and founded MOBY Group with early US-government development funding, launching Arman FM (2003), TOLO TV (2004), and Farsi1 (2009). 21st Century Fox took a minority stake in 2012; by 2014 MOBY reached a majority of Afghans and later spanned ~17 businesses across seven markets. He kept MOBY on air after the Taliban’s 2021 return.

Notable achievements

  • Founded MOBY Group (2002), Afghanistan’s largest media company.
  • Launched Arman FM (2003, first private radio), TOLO TV (2004), and Farsi1 (2009).
  • Attracted a minority stake from 21st Century Fox (2012).
  • Built a media group reaching a majority of Afghans, spanning ~17 businesses across seven markets.

Find them online

MOBY Group

Stories about Saad Mohseni

Saad Mohseni, founder of MOBY Group, subject of a case study on building a media empire in Afghanistan.
industry17 min read

Saad Mohseni: The Media Empire Built on Contested Ground

Saad Mohseni founded MOBY Group and brought private radio and modern television to post-2001 Afghanistan, earning the nickname “the Afghan Murdoch.” A sourced, critically neutral case study of a real entrepreneurial achievement, its entanglement with US/Western interests, the Taliban’s “American agent” smear, and the dilemma of broadcasting under censorship.

Saad Mohseni