Page 23 - CMA Journal (July-August 2025)

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Exclusive Interview

“ e shi f t
The most exciting trend is the shift

towards embedded finance—where
h
financial services are seamlessly e r e
integrated into everyday platforms
ms
ming
and ecosystems. This is transforming
how people access credit,

payments, and financial
management tools “

Mr. Omair Ansari

Co-Founder & CEO

Abhi Pvt. Ltd.

ICMA: You have had a global career—from Morgan ICMA: What was the key moment or motivation that
Stanley to launching Abhi in Pakistan. What led you to start Abhi? Was there a specific need in the
experiences have shaped your journey and prepared market that inspired you to take this step?
you to build a fintech company?
Omair Ansari: The turning point was realizing that
Omair Ansari: My career journey across Morgan Stanley, millions of hardworking people face a simple but painful
Renaissance Capital, and Vostok Emerging Finance gave problem: their income doesn’t match the timing of their
me the opportunity to work with financial systems in expenses. This mismatch forces them into debt traps or
both developed and emerging markets. A recurring informal borrowing. During the pandemic, the urgency of
theme I observed was how critical liquidity is, whether for this challenge became even clearer. That’s when we
individuals managing daily expenses or for businesses founded Abhi to provide instant access to earned wages
sustaining growth. Also, living and working across nine and reduce financial stress for employees. Going forward,
countries gave me a global outlook and a deep we saw that businesses, especially SMEs, struggled with
appreciation for the challenges of financial access in similar liquidity gaps due to delayed payments and
frontier economies. These experiences shaped my unpredictable cash flows. That insight shaped our
conviction to co-found Abhi in 2021, with the vision of broader vision to build solutions that address liquidity
addressing liquidity gaps and driving financial inclusion challenges for both employees and employers across

across the MENAP region. MENAP.

ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, Jul-Aug 2025 21