Remy Blaire: Welcome to FINTECH.TV. It was then two years since Lock Saudi Fintech Park, Barq has become one of the fastest-growing financial platforms in the world. And after capturing over 70% of the kingdom’s bankable population, surpassing 15 million users and processing over $120 billion in transactions, Barq has joined the ranks of global unicorns with a $1.85 billion valuation. Well, joining us live from Money20/20 in Las Vegas, Nevada, is Ahmed Alenazi, who’s CEO of Barq and winner of the [unclear: “Global Growth Brit”] Award. Ahmed, welcome. Great to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us.
Ahmed Alenazi: Thank you for having me. Thank you.
Remy Blaire: Well, for viewers out there, tell us about the hypergrowth at Barq and how you were able to scale.
Ahmed Alenazi: So, just to give some context about Barq: it is a platform in Saudi that has an EMI license, and also lending. And we are offering our services currently only to Saudi nationals and residents. And we have a plan to expand outside the Saudi market, to the region and then to the globe, including the US, as we evolve.
Our main focus is payments. We started in payments, and we picked the hardest thing, which is consumer. So for you to bring in consumers is not that easy or simple. And we don’t claim that we know. But we had, you know, the guts to experiment and do something that would bring more people to the platform. And by the way, Saudi is already [unclear: “self”] market. So you’re coming to a market where there are already players. And how can you bring something that will eventually add value to consumers, and also do something differently, without spending too much? Otherwise you grow in virality, but it dies down.
So what we did is we started by looking at how we can fix the variable cost of customer acquisition. Because if you give each customer an incentive when they come, then it becomes a continuous thing that never ends. So how can you bring them in? How can you build more products that customers will love after they come in, so they stay? And how can you do something for them so they bring more users, and it becomes a network? And how can you [unclear: “evince”] that network after this? These are the steps that we took from day one, and we did everything possible to maintain that. And as you know, customer expectations are evolving with today’s age of AI and everything. So you have to build something that is truly unique, and continue. So this is something that we are learning every single day.
Remy Blaire: And of course, we are on the ground at Money20/20. You mentioned artificial intelligence, which is something that all of us are paying attention to. So give us your perspective at Barq on how you’re planning on adopting and also incorporating this into what you’re doing.
Ahmed Alenazi: So if you look at Barq, it’s currently two years and a couple of months old. We adopted automation and built our data structure in a way that would make it easier for us to adopt AI, or anything in machine learning. And we did this from day one. And imagine that, going from zero to today, we are approaching 17 million users. If we didn’t use data, we would not be able to reach that level. So this is something that helped us reach those customers. So this is number one.
With AI, we are doing a lot of experiments today, and we are actually using some of it in terms of code review, code development, and internal operations. Anything that can be automated will bring more efficiency. [Unclear: “And an employee that works for divorce.”] So this is a very important thing. You need the human to have more time to think, not just doing an operation that a machine can do. So this is something that we care about. And the company is very small. We’re talking about fewer than 200 employees serving those customers, and that’s something we’re always working on, trying to optimize. And if you look at revenue per employee, I think it’s one of the highest globally, because we have a limited number of employees and we were able to scale revenue very fast.
So this is something that we are looking after. AI is evolving every single day. You wake up and there’s something new. You have to adapt and make sure that you pick the right things that will solve your problem. You don’t need to look at the larger scale. What you care about is what is going to solve something for you and for your consumers. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t have consumers, you will not have an app tomorrow. You will not have it in a couple of years. So you have to serve them. You have to make sure that they get what they want, and deliver up to their expectations.
So today, their expectations... If you remember, back in the day, you watched TV and you had to stick to the TV schedule. Today, you just go on demand and watch wherever you are. Again, this is the same thing, especially for the young generation. And in Saudi, 70% are below the age of 35. It’s a very good nation, with a lot of youth that have all the optimism to do more and deliver more.
Remy Blaire: And some keywords you mentioned there are efficiency and optimization. I understand that you are planning a regional expansion, as well as looking ahead beyond 2026 to 2027. So, given all the growth that you’ve seen so far, what comes next for Barq?
Ahmed Alenazi: See, today, as I mentioned earlier, once you build the platform and you bring everyone together, this will bring a lot of customer demand and a lot of customer expectations. So for us, we started with business. Who owns the businesses, the individuals, or who works for the businesses, the individuals. So if you have 70 million users, somehow they work for those businesses. So we are doing that integration. We launched business in the past three weeks, at Money20/20 Middle East, and we are evolving on that.
Then we went and said, okay, what other products will customers require? So we just got in-principle approval from the central bank to do financing. So very soon, we will launch three products. And then from there, we will add different types of products that customers demand. So this is something that we are always looking after. And if you don’t look at what they expect from you down the road, you lose the momentum, and you lose the growth that you have. So this is something that we all focus on, and eventually expanding into different markets.
It doesn’t mean that when you expand into a market, you will copy exactly the same thing, because a strategy that worked in one place might not work in another place, and there’s a high probability it will not work. So you have to understand the customer demands, the customer demographics, and how they behave. And all of this, you need to start with a very good model that understands the data that comes with the transactions that you have, and build around it. This is something that we have built, while always remaining lean and agile.
Because those two words, a lot of people use them. We dream to have 100% of that. We dream to have 90% of it. But we will do as much as we can to maintain this agility, and to not have an organization filled with a lot of processes that will delay things and delay innovation. I think it’s the same ingredients, plus the team’s experience. And sometimes experience will not be good for you, because you have those particular restrictions in your head. And I am happy and proud of having a team that understands this. So experience is one side, but you have to think at the zero level. So you understand all the issues from the bottom up and try to fix things. It doesn’t mean that you won’t use those experiences to fast-track the product, but do not think that this is exactly the thing that you should do.
So this is something that enabled us to do more, and we are learning every single day. Life is all about learning. Every day you wake up, there is a new thing. So you have to do multiple things, and you have to look at your customers’ demands in every market that you go to. So our plan is to expand. We should have something in the region that serves the whole region together. Today, we see the global players, big players like Revolut and Nubank, all of them. They are also looking at the region from different angles. Some of them are focused on, let’s say, Latin America. Some of them are focused on Europe. But eventually, this is also a hub that those guys will come to. So how can we have someone in the region going outside? So exactly, this is the ambition, because we have everything that they have. We have the people. We have the know-how. We have the guts to do things. And we have the believers with us, whether employees or investors.
And this is a mission that we’re in the early stage of. So we think we will do a lot of things. We don’t know exactly what will happen next. We have it in our heads, but we are not strict on, oh, this is what we should do. We will adjust as we go. So this is life. You have to adjust as you go. So this is something that will always work, and we will always learn and do more.
Remy Blaire: And finally, before I let you go, you’re the winner of the [unclear: “Global Growth Grid”] Award. Congratulations on receiving that award. But as we count down to the new year, 2027, and you envision Barq not just for the year beyond, but, say, five or ten years from now, what would that look like?
Ahmed Alenazi: So the dream for Barq is to be one of the global players. If you look at, whether, Nubank or Revolut, because those are great examples, those guys started from nothing and built something great. So this is an inspiring story for everyone that loves to do something and provide something to consumers [unclear: “to assembly”] and grow from there.
So for us, we think that we should be the leader in our region. This is the focus for the next five years, not even ten years. And this is a focus that we are currently working on, with a deep focus. We acquired a company in Bahrain, and we have a lot of licenses around the GCC, so we will operate there. We went to a market like, you know, Pakistan, because there is an interaction between the GCC and Pakistan. There is a lot of money movement that’s happening today. So this is something that we are focusing on. And we look to be one of the big players, starting from the region and going outside.
Remy Blaire: Well, Ahmed, I appreciate you joining us here at Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thank you so much for sharing the story behind Barq, as well as all of your insights today.
Ahmed Alenazi: Thank you for having me.
Remy Blaire: My pleasure. Thank you.
Ahmed Alenazi: Thank you.
