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