Omair Ansari

Early life and background

Ansari was born in London. He lived in Nigeria, Paris, Bombay, London, Toronto and Abu Dhabi, and then returned to Toronto. He has not lived in any one country for more than five years of his life. [1]

Wherever he lived, he attended the American school. His graduating class in Abu Dhabi had 36 people and 38 nationalities. He took part in Model United Nations at school. [1]

Education

Ansari was admitted to a good university in the United States, but his student visa was rejected. He then went to Canada. He completed a B.Com with a double major in finance and political science. He added finance to his political science degree because he doubted that a political science degree alone would get him a real job. [1]

Career

Ansari's first job was at a hedge fund in London. He worked in London, Hong Kong and Dubai for a company that ran a sub-fund. He stayed at the hedge fund for just over four years. [1]

During the financial crisis, his fund was up 36% while markets fell close to 40%. The fund ran out of assets and shut down, even though it had performed well. It lacked certain provisions, such as gates, to limit investors taking money out. After the fund closed, he was out of work for six to nine months. [1]

He moved to New York, where his sister lived, to look for work. In New York he was targeted by job-interview scams that asked applicants to pay. He then looked for work in Toronto. [1]

Doha and frontier markets

A company in Doha approached Ansari and said it was launching a MENA fund and looking at launching an Asia equity fund as well. At that company he helped set up a portfolio and start running it. He was at the Doha company for about two and a half to three years. He described Doha as really boring and said the work was not pushing him much. [1]

He then joined a firm that he described as the leader in frontier markets. His first assignment there was to take a group of investors to Iraq. He learned from the Iraq trip how volatile frontier and emerging markets can be. He moved to Lagos to help run the consumer and brewery advisory research work. He also went on to Johannesburg, Rwanda and Uganda for the same firm. [1]

Ansari was at that firm for just under four years, about three and a half. At that firm he helped expand its footprint to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. There he first met fintech and fell in love with it. [1]

Portfolio management and advisory work

Ansari moved from Dubai to New York to join a frontier market fund as an analyst. He was promoted to portfolio manager on the product. He travelled about three weeks a month in that role. [1]

His fund held positions in companies in China. In that role he saw financial inclusion happen outside banks in emerging markets. He worked at Morgan Stanley and was a strategic adviser to a second firm at the same time. [1]

Moving to Pakistan

Ansari says he looked at many transactions and companies from countries surrounding Pakistan, but never anything in Pakistan. He holds the view that comfort breeds complacency. He described a personal challenge of finding out whether he could actually be an operator. He believes an entrepreneur should try to be on the other side of the table. He believed that if he did not build in Pakistan, someone else would. [1]

About two years passed between his deciding he wanted to do something and his quitting. When he first raised the idea in a conversation over a meal, the person he was speaking with said he would back him. He met banks, regulators, officials and fintech firms to test the idea. He had no operational experience in Pakistan when he started. [1]

Ansari resigned in January and was on gardening leave until the end of May. He moved to Pakistan in early March. He got married in Pakistan. He says Abhi went live in July. [1]

Abhi

Ansari is associated with Abhi. His co-founder, Ali, is the operational co-founder and chief operating officer. He and his co-founder went to a company of about 400 people and put posters around the office. He says Abhi lets employees access their salary early, in under 30 seconds, through employer tie-ups. He says Abhi is paid back directly by the employer. [1]

He says Abhi calls itself a financial wellness platform. He says the plan is to build trust first, then move customers up the financial ladder to credit. He says Abhi charges a flat fee of 2% per transaction, with no late fees and no penalties. He says Abhi is Shariah-compliant. [1]

He says Abhi's maximum duration is 30 days and that it can pay out to any wallet or bank account. He says Abhi is working with the likes of EasyPaisa, where there will be no fee. He says Abhi works only with companies for now, with a consumer product to follow. He says Abhi plans to look at a consumer product in 2022. [1]

Ansari says that within two weeks Abhi had about 30 to 40% of an employee base transacting with it, with no further advertising. He says Abhi did just over $4,500 in transactions in the last week of July. He says monthly transactions were about $25,000 in August, $350,000 in September and just over $1 million in October. He says monthly transactions reached $7.9 million by December. He says Abhi is also getting reverse solicitation. [1]

He says Abhi has signed over 90 companies and is onboarding about 650,000 employees. He says Abhi has offices in Karachi and Lahore. He says Abhi has customers in Multan, Faisalabad and Sialkot, though it has not gone there in person. He says Abhi took part in a Y Combinator batch in the summer. [1]

He says Abhi raised $2 million in seed funding. He says the seed plan set aside $1.5 million for lending and $500,000 for operating and capital costs. He says Abhi raised $5.5 million in a pre-Series A round in October or November. He says Abhi is now going into its Series A. [1]

He says Abhi is in talks with several banks for credit lines and has kept its burn and team small. He says Abhi may expand beyond Pakistan later, but Pakistan is enough for now. He says Pakistan is the focus, with enough of a market there to go after. [1]

Views

Ansari says wage inflation rarely happens, because companies seldom give an inflation increase at the end of the year. He says people sometimes have to wait up to 60 days to be paid their salary. He says living paycheck to paycheck is often not the individual's fault. He says traditional banks lack the data aspect and the ability to segment that data. [1]

He says Africa is not one place, with more than 50 very different countries. He says Egypt and Nigeria are very similar to Pakistan. He says seizing of assets has happened in Kenya and Ethiopia because debt repayments became very problematic. [1]

He describes certain venture investors as loan sharks who want to see a company become cash flow positive, or return cash, within five to six months. He says venture investing expects many companies to fail. He says 300 million is big in Pakistan's context, but nothing compared to similar regions. He hopes annoyances like currency depreciation and poor access to finance will ease by 2050. [1]

Ansari says cash is still 98% or more of the economy and that Abhi's main competition is cash. He says reaching 85 to 90% cash and the rest digital within three to five years would be a great achievement. He says UPI put transactions on the rails at essentially zero cost, which he hopes Raast ends up doing. He says typical merchant discount rates are 1.5 to 3%. [1]

He says foodpanda couriers want cash on delivery. He says the appeal of cash is that money can be used instantly. He says a company in Dubai that Abhi is looking to work with is able to bring the merchant discount rate to zero. [1]

Timeline

2022

Ansari says Abhi plans to look at a consumer product.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Why an ex-Morgan Stanley PM left New York to build Abhi in Karachi . Thought Behind Things , 2022-01-17.