RZ
◆ The operating map

Seventeen years. Ten markets. Three industries.

I didn't study frontier markets, I shipped in them. This is the map: every market, what I built there, and what it taught me about payments, product and the distance between a regulation and a working checkout.

PakistanBangladeshNepalIraqEgyptSaudi ArabiaUAESri LankaMyanmarPakistanBangladeshNepalIraqEgyptSaudi ArabiaUAESri LankaMyanmar

Pakistan

Karachi · 2009–present
Tapmad · Daraz · Simpaisa

Direct Carrier Billing across all four telcos; 0→5M OTT subscribers at Tapmad.

The wallet, not the card, is the consumer rail.

Bangladesh

Dhaka · 2020–present
Daraz · Simpaisa

Multi-country payment operations at Alibaba scale; cross-border corridor expansion.

Reconciliation is the real product in cross-border.

Nepal

Kathmandu · 2020–present
Daraz · Simpaisa

Payment operations across Daraz checkout; Simpaisa corridor expansion.

Small markets still demand their own local rails.

Iraq

Baghdad · 2020–present
Simpaisa

Cross-border corridor launch under a tightening regulatory regime.

Compliance discipline is the entry ticket, not the afterthought.

Egypt

Cairo · 2020–present
Simpaisa

Cross-border corridor launch into a mandated-domestic-scheme market.

The domestic scheme beats international routing.

Saudi Arabia

Riyadh · 2017–2020
Tapmad

DCB and wallet-billing infrastructure expansion with regional telco partners.

Mada-first routing is non-negotiable.

United Arab Emirates

Dubai · 2017–present
Wing Logic · Simpaisa

Built a PMO for a $12M+ portfolio; today the base for the Simpaisa platform.

Regulator engagement is high-touch and slow — plan for it.

Sri Lanka

Colombo · 2020
Daraz

Payment operations across five Daraz markets during a COVID-driven volume surge.

COD-to-digital conversion is a trust problem before it is a tech one.

Myanmar

Yangon · 2020
Daraz

Payment operations and localisation across Daraz checkout.

Payment coverage is a localisation problem, not a feature list.

◆ Selected operating markets · arcs originate from the Dubai hub

◆ The arc

Three eras, one throughline

Delivery discipline first, consumer scale next, then regulated payment infrastructure: each era compounding into the one after it.

  1. 2009–2016Foundations

    Engineering to product. Learning to run delivery before running a roadmap.

    • Moved from field engineering into project and product leadership.
    • Ran PMO leadership at DS Engineering across a $15M portfolio and 400+ projects, and earlier at PESCO.
    • Named Youngest Project Manager of the Year in 2015.
  2. 2017–2020Scale school

    Two operators, two continents of consumer scale — OTT subscriptions and Alibaba-scale marketplaces.

    • Tapmad (OTT): launched Direct Carrier Billing across all four telcos and grew from 0 to 5M paid subscribers.
    • Tapmad: cut payment cost from 50% of revenue to about 1% and lifted ARPU by 70%, on the way to $10M+ ARR.
    • Tapmad: expanded DCB and wallet billing into the UAE and KSA with regional telco and wallet partners.
    • Daraz (Alibaba Group): ran payment operations across five markets during a COVID-driven volume surge.
    • Daraz: widened payment coverage by roughly 40% by localising regional methods on checkout.
  3. 2020–nowThe gateway years

    Simpaisa — Chief Product Officer, and acting CTO through 2024. Building the cross-border gateway.

    • Built a $1B+ GTV gateway processing 270M+ payments a year.
    • Reached 150+ merchants at a 99.95% settlement SLA.
    • Shipped four market launches in 2024 and led a 40-engineer payments organisation across 12 squads.
    • Led PCI-DSS Level 1 and ISO 27001 from scratch.
◆ Every stop on the map

Markets that shaped the work

What shipped in each market, and the operating lesson it left behind.

  • Pakistan2009–present

    Pakistan

    Karachi · 2009–present
    Tapmad · Daraz · Simpaisa

    Direct Carrier Billing across all four telcos; 0→5M OTT subscribers at Tapmad.

    The wallet, not the card, is the consumer rail.

  • Bangladesh2020–present

    Bangladesh

    Dhaka · 2020–present
    Daraz · Simpaisa

    Multi-country payment operations at Alibaba scale; cross-border corridor expansion.

    Reconciliation is the real product in cross-border.

  • Nepal2020–present

    Nepal

    Kathmandu · 2020–present
    Daraz · Simpaisa

    Payment operations across Daraz checkout; Simpaisa corridor expansion.

    Small markets still demand their own local rails.

  • Iraq2020–present

    Iraq

    Baghdad · 2020–present
    Simpaisa

    Cross-border corridor launch under a tightening regulatory regime.

    Compliance discipline is the entry ticket, not the afterthought.

  • Egypt2020–present

    Egypt

    Cairo · 2020–present
    Simpaisa

    Cross-border corridor launch into a mandated-domestic-scheme market.

    The domestic scheme beats international routing.

  • Saudi Arabia2017–2020

    Saudi Arabia

    Riyadh · 2017–2020
    Tapmad

    DCB and wallet-billing infrastructure expansion with regional telco partners.

    Mada-first routing is non-negotiable.

  • United Arab Emirates2017–present

    United Arab Emirates

    Dubai · 2017–present
    Wing Logic · Simpaisa

    Built a PMO for a $12M+ portfolio; today the base for the Simpaisa platform.

    Regulator engagement is high-touch and slow — plan for it.

  • Sri Lanka2020

    Sri Lanka

    Colombo · 2020
    Daraz

    Payment operations across five Daraz markets during a COVID-driven volume surge.

    COD-to-digital conversion is a trust problem before it is a tech one.

  • Myanmar2020

    Myanmar

    Yangon · 2020
    Daraz

    Payment operations and localisation across Daraz checkout.

    Payment coverage is a localisation problem, not a feature list.

The map is the story. The work is the proof.

See the case studies behind these markets, or start a conversation about what comes next.

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