EPISODE 117 WITH ZYWA’S ALOK KUMAR & NUHA HASHEM
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Much of the current innovation in the fintech space focuses on empowering the unbanked and the underbanked to have access to crucial financial services. One people group that has been continually overlooked is Gen Z (ages 11-25), who only have access to cash or their parents' cards to make payments. Zywa is on a mission to change that.
Zywa is a social banking app and prepaid card created specifically for Gen Z, allowing teenagers to spend, receive and manage money completely cashlessly. They can also earn rewards and interact with their friends on the app, and parents are even able to send money to their kids to cover expenses in a controlled environment.
Zywa was inspired by the lived experiences of its co-founders. Alok Kumar (CEO) and Nuha Hashem (CTO) grew up in the gulf region and identified the pain points of young people who were stuck with borrowing their parents' cards or asking for cash to make payments. They recently raised $3 million in seed funding which they will use to fuel their growth in the UAE and expand into Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
In this conversation on The Change Officer Podcast, Alok and Nuha share:
Zywa's fascinating origin story
Why they decided to leave their established career paths and focus fully on Zywa instead
Their experience and the value they gained from being involved in the YCombinator accelerator programme
How they sourced, pitched to and selected investors for Zywa
How they are building their business and their product
Why they were able to successfully partner with banks
What a growth team is, the value it holds, and how they built theirs
How they are gathering the data to build a product that truly meets the needs of its users
Host: Vuk Zlatarov
Find Zywa online: https://www.zywa.co
Enjoy!
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Production company: Poddster
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