Couchonomics with Arjun
Decoding the New World Order of Finance - Unfiltered, global, weekly
As tectonic shifts reshape the financial world, Couchonomics continues to explore the trends transforming commerce, capital, and culture. This season, we expand our lens - building on our deep focus in the MENA region while bringing in voices, stories, and innovations from around the globe.
Why? Because the future of finance is no longer regional - it’s interconnected.
Whether it’s AI in Asia, tokenization in Europe, or fintech policy experiments in Africa, today’s financial shifts cross borders, industries, and disciplines.
Whether you’re in the industry or just fintech-curious, tune in weekly as we decode the big moves, bold ideas, and brilliant minds shaping tomorrow’s economy.
Episodes drop weekly. Arabic subtitles available on YouTube: youtube.com/@couchonomicswitharjunsingh438
Learn more: www.couchonomics.com
Season 4 supported by:
Adyen | Mastercard | SC Ventures | Thunes | Hala | e& | Digit 9
About the host:
Arjun's expertise covers a broad range of areas including Fintech, Payments, Digital Assets, Embedded Finance, Application of Emerging Technologies, and the Emergence of New Business Models within the Financial Services Sector in the MEA region and globally.
Arjun is deeply engaged in the Tech Start-Up ecosystem. He serves as a passive investor, advisory board member, and a notable commentator on the rapidly evolving scene.
In recognition of his impactful contributions, Arjun was honored as a Top Voice of the region by LinkedIn in 2020.
Learn more at www.couchonomics.com.
Couchonomics with Arjun
How Deep Payments Infrastructure Creates Real Fintech Advantage
Payments in emerging markets are often discussed as infrastructure.
But the real differentiation happens in how deeply payments are embedded into business operations.
In the final episode of this special Qatar Development Bank series of Couchonomics with Arjun, Arjun sits down in Doha with Saad Ishfaq, CEO of TESS Payments, to unpack how a payments company built for Qatar is scaling by solving real operational pain, not just processing transactions.
TESS Payments is a QCB-licensed payment service provider designed specifically for the Qatari market. Rather than chasing regional expansion, Saad explains why the company chose to go deep instead of wide, focusing on enterprise-grade flexibility, managed services, and bespoke integrations for large organisations across real estate, government, and critical infrastructure.
The conversation explores how payments sit at the centre of SME enablement, why micro and small businesses remain underserved across the GCC, and how fintechs and banks must collaborate rather than compete. Saad also shares how TESS evolved beyond payments into CFO tooling and digital lending, including a new sandboxed lending platform addressing Qatar’s blue-collar workforce.
From owning core infrastructure to navigating bank partnerships, regulatory sandboxes, and product adjacencies, this episode offers a grounded look at how fintech scale is built inside regulated markets.
🎙️ In this episode:
• Why TESS Payments is built for Qatar, not regional expansion
• Payments as an embedded operational layer, not a commodity
• Solving CFO and CTO pain through deep integrations
• SME and micro-SME challenges in the GCC
• Why banks and fintechs must work together to scale impact
• Building proprietary payments infrastructure in a crowded market
• Regulatory sandboxes as a growth enabler
• Expanding from payments into digital lending
• Addressing financial access for blue-collar workers
• Qatar’s role as a fintech launchpad
• Founder lessons from Pakistan to Qatar
• Grit, resilience, and building through constraint
👉 Watch the full conversation to understand how payments, regulation, and fintech innovation come together when products are built with local reality in mind.
SOCIAL LINKS
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Twitter → https://twitter.com/Arjun_Vir_Singh
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Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3WI4A6E
CHAPTERS
00:00 Qatar Development Bank series wrap-up
01:30 Introducing TESS Payments and Saad Ishfaq
04:00 Key global and regional payment trends
07:00 SME and micro-SME challenges in the GCC
10:30 Embedding payments into enterprise operations
13:30 Proprietary infrastructure and differentiation
16:00 Working with banks
Our website 👉 https://bit.ly/3jk7UH0
Find us on our social media platforms:
- Arjun's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunvirsingh/
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- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/couchonomics/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/Arjun_Vir_Singh?s=20
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Subscribe to Arjun's LinkedIn newsletter, Couchonomics Crunch: https://bit.ly/3WI4A6E
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