Breaking Down Barriers
Welcome to "Breaking Down Barriers," a podcast dedicated to uncovering the untold stories and invaluable insights from the visionary minds shaping the Middle East's vibrant technology landscape where we sit down with the region's most innovative Chief Technology Officers and Chief Product Officers, and executives from thriving startups, game-changing unicorns, high-growth scale-ups, and groundbreaking IPO companies.
Each episode will take you on an immersive journey through the personal experiences and hard-won wisdom of these extraordinary leaders. Discover the secrets behind their success in building and scaling companies that not only disrupt industries but also redefine the boundaries of what's possible.
Join us as we break down barriers and delve into the minds of the Middle East's most influential tech, product and executives on "Breaking Down Barriers."
We've made Breaking Down Barriers with our Supporting Partner AWS, and our Investment Partner Shorooq.
Breaking Down Barriers
Building the Financial Backbone of MENA: Inside Lean Technologies with CPO Tewfik | Breaking Down Barriers
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Underneath every great financial ecosystem is infrastructure the systems that let money, data, and trust move seamlessly. In this episode, we sit down with Tewfik, Chief Product Officer at Lean Technologies, the company that became the first licensed open banking provider in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Five years ago, open banking didn't exist in the Gulf. There was no local playbook, no proven consumer behavior, and a cash-heavy market that had never been asked to authenticate a payment through a banking app. Today, Lean has processed over 5B+ in transaction volume and works with 300+ enterprise clients banks and fintechs alike.
But this conversation goes far beyond open banking. We talk about what it takes to become the default infrastructure layer for an entire region's financial system, why fintech "winning" doesn't mean replacing banks, why financial data might be a bigger opportunity than payments themselves, and how AI is about to rewrite decisioning, fraud detection, and UX from the ground up.
In this episode, we cover:
- Introduction: Why infrastructure is the real story in fintech
- Building what didn't exist: Lean's earliest days and the friction of localising open banking in MENA
- Why early clients stayed before the market was ready
- Has fintech actually won? Banks vs. fintechs vs. infrastructure
- Becoming the "AWS" or "Stripe" of financial infrastructure in MENA
- The hardest problems Lean solves that most companies never see
- Open finance as a credit access and financial inclusion story
- Why verified financial data may be the biggest transformation in financial services
- Inside the new Pay by Bank suite: Deposits, Collections, Checkout, and Pay by Link
- How the UAE is leapfrogging markets like the UK in open banking
- Building a world-class team: hiring for people who are "bothered by things being broken"
- AI and financial services: rethinking infrastructure, decisioning, and UX from scratch
- Will traditional credit scores exist by 2030?
- AI agents managing our financial lives - how close are we?
- What the biggest fintech company of 2030 might look like
- What's next for Lean beyond open banking
- Quickfire round: cards vs. A2A payments, contrarian beliefs, and Lean's best early bet
About the guest:
Tewfik is Chief Product Officer at Lean Technologies, the leading open banking infrastructure provider in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Under his product leadership, Lean has scaled to power connectivity, payments, and financial data infrastructure for over 300 enterprise clients across the region.
About Breaking Down Barriers:
Breaking Down Barriers is a podcast exploring the people and companies redefining industries — from fintech to infrastructure to AI. Each episode goes beyond the headlines to understand what it actually takes to build something that didn't exist before.
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