Episode #42
Episode 43: How Saqhib Ali Is Reinventing Finance with 0 Interest Loans
At Muslim Tech Fest in London, the Caravan Podcast interviews Saqhib Ali, founder of Zeropa, about building an interest-free microfinance alternative for essentials. Saqhib shares how hearing distressed customers while working in Lloyds’ financial distress unit inspired Zeropa’s model, why he chose not to operate as a charity to enable scale, and how the platform lends only when repayments are affordable using income/expenditure analysis, open banking, and behavioral checks. Zeropa provides 0% financing for necessities (mainly food, plus utilities, clothing, furniture, and repairs) by paying retailers directly and earning revenue via retailer rebates so customers never pay more than retail price. He discusses community poverty statistics, misconceptions that Zeropa is only for Muslims (less than 1% of applicants are Muslim), plans for UK FCA authorization and future peer-to-peer licensing, and lessons on lifelong learning and career pivots in an AI-disrupted future. 00:00 Interest and Morality 00:46 Welcome to Muslim Tech Fest 01:43 Why MTF Feels Different 03:18 Early Entrepreneur Roots 04:54 From Medicine to Banking 06:31 Distress Calls Spark Zeropa 08:49 Building Zeropa Model 13:47 Not a Charity Scale 16:37 Who Qualifies for Zero Percent 18:37 Retail Cashback Revenue 22:56 Against Buy Now Pay Later 24:23 Last Resort Lending 25:26 Food Loan Demand 26:44 Repeat Loans Rules 27:41 Pitching The Model 28:59 Muslim Community Reach 31:22 UK Regulation Plans 33:17 Growth And Underwriting 37:48 Affordability Criteria 39:28 True Zero Interest 42:18 Reinventing Yourself 43:13 Never Too Late 47:49 Where To Find Zeropa
