This guy quit a promising career as a venture capitalist to build a ‘Siri for payments’

Zubair Ahmed, CEO of Hishaab.

Zubair Ahmed, founder and CEO of fintech startup Hishab, started his career in Japan working in the mergers and acquisitions space. Between 2010 and 2016 he headed the venture capital arm of Infoteria, managing approximately US$15 million.

Bangladesh-born Zubair, who’s an engineer by training, says he made a total of 11 investments. Out of this portfolio, four startups successfully exited, with two of them sold to the likes of LinkedIn and VMware.

“I was probably one of the highest-paid executives in the group. If you include bonuses, I was making a lot of money,” he recalls. “But I was always thinking about what to do in the long term. I wanted to create something of my own, have the fun and thrill of building something from scratch. I knew there was a very small window to realize this dream otherwise I’d be left behind.”

Zubair, known affectionately as “Zubi,” wore several hats at his role with Infoteria. Not only was he the fund manager, trying to ascertain which businesses to invest in, he also played the part of mentor and coach. He supported the CEOs of his portfolio startups by guiding them with things like operations, sales, and marketing.

“Sometimes I used to think ‘oh my god, these CEOs are so stupid they don’t understand what to do. All they have to do is listen to me.’ But now that I am on the other side of the table, I can see how they worked their asses off every day,” he laughs.

A problem to solve

During a trip to Singapore in late 2013, Zubi noticed some peculiar behavior. Shopkeepers in Chinatown would confirm purchases by verbally repeating the order in front of their clients and then jotting it down on a piece of paper.

A few months later he flew to Jakarta where he observed the same trend. “That struck me as interesting,” he remembers. “Back then I was already thinking of creating a startup that deals with big data and solves a real problem but couldn’t quite grasp the idea.”

After speaking to some of his colleagues, it dawned on him that this was common behavior in parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Both wholesalers and retailers often sold goods on credit but they weren’t savvy enough to deploy sophisticated enterprise systems to track sales. So they resorted to inefficient processes like physical data entry and rudimentary bookkeeping.

Recovering payments was another hassle. Many customers would simply forget to pay – shopkeepers would have to resort to repeated phone calls and reminders before they received their cash. It wasn’t an ideal state of affairs by any means.

What Zubi came up with was Hishab, which he likens to a ‘Siri for payments.’

The product basically allows users to input financial transactions using only their voice. As shopkeepers are used to repeating orders to confirm the transaction, all they have to do is dial a hotline number beforehand which detects the voice and records the transaction. As soon as a shopkeeper hangs up, the transaction is confirmed and a text message with purchase details is sent instantly to both parties.

Not so fast

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