Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS

Episode 1018: What it’s actually like to build a fintech in the Middle East
Date: November 27, 2025
Host: David Brear (A)
Guests: Abdullah Karim, Co-founder & CTO, Edhikar (B) | Naman Ali, Founder & CEO, Orbi (C) | Rowan Badoor, Co-founder, Zest (D)

Episode Overview

This episode of Fintech Insider Insights dives deep into the realities of building a fintech startup in the Middle East. Following his experience judging the Money20/20 Middle East "money surge" competition in Riyadh, host David Brear gathers three winning founders—Orbi, Edika, and Zest—for a candid exploration of startup life, regional dynamics, customer relationships, funding, regulation, and ambitions for the future. The conversation offers an honest, engaging, and often humorous look at the founder experience, with practical wisdom and inspiration for listeners interested in the region’s fintech surge.

Meet the Founders & Startups

[02:12] Abdullah Karim – Edhikar

• Saudi fintech transforming employee savings.
• Integrates with payroll, allowing employees to automatically save and invest part of their salaries via regulated partners.
• Tackles the low savings rate in the region by automating and simplifying the savings process.

[03:31] Naman Ali – Orbi

• Credit intelligence layer for modern lending.
• Automates and enhances data ingestion, enrichment, credit decisioning, and disbursement/collection for lenders.
• Partners with neobanks, B2B fintechs, and platforms wanting to offer embedded SME lending.

[05:04] Rowan Badoor – Zest

• Digital infrastructure to streamline private market transactions.
• Provides end-to-end workflow for private investments—onboarding, documentation, deal execution.
• Aims to be the “pipes, rails, and infrastructure” for private capital markets, akin to what Stripe did for payments.

Startup Origins: Personal Stories & Motivations

Zest’s Beginnings [06:45]

• Originated from Rowan and his co-founder’s shared frustrations: lack of access, poor transparency, fragmented deal processes in private markets.
• “We were sitting in my parents' living room ... he was talking about liquidity in private markets ... I came from a different angle: access and transparency. The way people execute is so disaggregated.” — Rowan (D), [07:30]
• Rowan’s investment banking and compliance background pushed him to prioritize good governance and sustainable growth.

Edhikar’s Family Roots [10:37]

• Built with his father, who previously ran a successful employee savings fund in Saudi Arabia.
• “My co-founder is actually my father ... he said, why not work together and build this as a fully automated platform. You can’t say no to your father.” — Abdullah Karim (B), [11:22]

Orbi’s Cross-Continental Journey [12:24]

• Naman’s trajectory from London, Microsoft AI engineer, Bank of England technologist, to regional founder.
• Frustration with static, backwards-looking credit models and wasted product potential drove him to the Middle East to tackle SME lending head-on.
• “No one drives a car just looking in the rearview mirror ... if you’re trying to predict the future, you need the right data sets.” — David Brear (A), [15:28]

The Reality of Entrepreneurship

Startup Life: The “Baby” Analogy

• “It’s like having a baby ... you really cannot switch off ... any second you’re not thinking proactively, there’s a massive opportunity cost. You’re forced to mature as a leader, as an executioner ... it’s very difficult at times, but I don’t think I’ve learned as much in my life as I have in the last four years.” — Rowan (D), [16:18]

Tech Founder Challenges

• “Coming from a technical background, you tend to want to build the most elegant solution, and you have to keep pulling yourself back to focus on the actual customer problem.” — Naman (C), [18:27]
• “You’re trying to predict what could fail every single day, while also maintaining optimism and vision ... that balance of being grounded in facts vs. optimism is key—easier said than done.” — Naman (C), [19:28, 20:45]

Entrepreneurship is Accelerated Learning

• “It’s a very painful experience, but also very rewarding ... the ups and downs are an accumulation of beautiful things ... but sped up across five years instead of waiting your whole career.” — Abdullah (B), [22:19]

Product-Market Fit & Building with Customers

Iteration & Listening

Zest’s Evolution [23:47]

• Initial product focused on liquidity and secondary share transfers. Customer feedback pushed them to shift toward private market infrastructure.
• “Our first weeks, we didn’t want to hear the feedback. But the clients said: I love the idea, but can you just help me do it in private? So, we pivoted and built the infrastructure for deal execution in private.” — Rowan (D), [25:01]

Orbi’s Customer Engagement [26:40]

• Direct, on-the-ground learning by tracking down lenders during lunch breaks in DIFC and ADGM to get honest feedback.
• “We would literally hound them at lunchtime just to get two minutes of their time ... ask what kept them up at night ... managed to get our first five early adopters.” — Naman (C), [27:17–28:17]

Edhikar’s Enterprise Solution

• Identified a missing benefit in Saudi: daily savings vehicles for employees, not just pensions.
• Employer demand for competitive benefits aligned with Edhikar’s frictionless payroll integration approach.

Fundraising in the Middle East

Pitching as a Skill

• Compressing the story and using simple language is key for investor clarity.
• “The biggest challenge was consolidating everything into three minutes ... making it concise, relatable ... using terminology people understand.” — Rowan (D), [32:25]
• “Be bold, be brief, be gone. The three Bs ... outcomes over potential.” — Naman (C), [34:32]

What Investors Want

• “Demonstrating traction. It’s super important here—not only for investors, but for your own sanity ... The VC’s in the Middle East need that clarity. Our conversations have evolved from ‘is the market big enough’ to ‘are you building for the region or the world?’” — Naman (C), [38:41, 44:04]
• Relationships, network, and reputation matter.
• “In Saudi, interpersonal skills and your last name are important. It’s all about reputation and connections.” — Abdullah (B), [40:10]

Regulation & Momentum

• Regulatory shifts and government support are creating windows of opportunity.
• “When you have governments and regulation enabling, it creates massive opportunity ... it’s riding a wave.” — Abdullah (B), [48:24]

Regional Opportunities & Challenges

• “I always call it a mosaic. Each piece is unique. The GCC states know they need regulatory flexibility for these grand visions. They’re listening and creating sandbox environments.” — Naman (C), [46:32]
• “You can pick the jurisdiction that works for what you're building ... The tools and resources to think big are here.” — Rowan (D), [44:04–46:11]

Future Ambitions

Orbi:
“To make credit access universal and intelligent ... access to credit should literally be a press of a button—a reflex. That’s our mission for businesses across the region and beyond.” — Naman (C), [49:34]

Edhikar:
“To become the default savings infrastructure for employers—every employee should have automatic savings as a benefit, just like healthcare or vacation. Goal is regional GCC and MENA expansion.” — Abdullah (B), [50:15]

Zest:
“Simplify, safeguard, scale. We want to be the B2B provider for transactional infrastructure—step into the zest ecosystem, pick the tools you need, press play, and your whole deal execution is streamlined.” — Rowan (D), [50:43]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Startup life is like having a baby ... you never switch off.” — Rowan (D), [16:18]
• “No one drives a car just looking in the rearview mirror ... to predict the future you need to look ahead.” — David Brear (A), [15:28]
• “You have to earn the right to do more things for customers. Do something really simple, solve a problem, then earn the right.” — David Brear referencing Patrick Collison (Stripe), [25:52]
• “Be bold, be brief, be gone.” — Naman (C), [34:32]
• “In the Middle East, relationships matter—a lot. Reputation is key.” — Abdullah Karim (B), [40:10]
• “It’s a mosaic ... but regulators are listening, and the region is open for innovation.” — Naman (C), [46:32]

Key Timestamps

• [00:14] Intro and context: Money 2020 Middle East, excitement about the region
• [02:12–05:49] Meet the founders: What Edhikar, Orbi, and Zest do
• [06:45–15:28] Startup origin stories: Motivation and personal journeys
• [16:18–23:08] The entrepreneurship rollercoaster: Emotional realities, learning, growth
• [23:47–31:05] Finding product-market fit: Customer feedback, pivoting, early adoption
• [32:25–37:47] Pitching and communicating: Telling your story to investors, learning clarity
• [38:41–43:15] Fundraising culture in the Middle East: What matters, how it works
• [44:04–48:21] Regional context: Regulation, opportunity, cross-border scaling
• [49:34–51:30] Long-term vision and goals for each company

How to Connect

• Orbi: hello@orbi.ai | LinkedIn | “I do respond; it’s not a bot, I promise.” — Naman (C), [52:14]
• Edhikar: info@edhikar.com | LinkedIn (Abdullah Karim) [52:47]
• Zest: zestequity.com | LinkedIn (Rowan Badoor) [53:00]

Final Takeaway:
Entrepreneurship in the Middle East’s fintech scene is buzzing with opportunity, but comes with local nuances, the need for resilience, tight founder-customer feedback loops, networking skills, and a willingness to learn at triple speed in a rapidly evolving environment. As each founder notes, the region’s regulatory excitement, openness to innovation, and ambitious vision make it a launchpad not only for regional domination but for global expansion.