Embedded Finance Review Podcast, episode 19. Published 20 February 2025. Guest: Ali Tabbalat, founder of EmFlex. Host: Lars Markull.
Lars Markull: There is so much to learn about how other regions approach embedded finance, and in this episode we're learning about one of the most promising areas for fintech, Saudi Arabia. Today I'm speaking with Ali Tabbalat. With EmFlex, Ali and his team are offering a car financing solution that helps consumers to finance their online car purchase. Ali has a ton of experience building in various fields, such as early wage access and at the intersection of fintech and medical services. In this podcast we're speaking about Ali's decision to build a car financing solution in Saudi Arabia, how EmFlex is collaborating with banks and not competing with them, and how he and his team plan to expand the offering.
Welcome to the Embedded Finance Review Podcast. My name is Lars Markull. Every two weeks I'm interviewing a builder or shaper of embedded finance. Let's dive in.
Welcome
Lars Markull: Hi Ali, welcome to the podcast. First question, how are you doing today, and in what part of the world are you located right now?
Ali Tabbalat: Hi Lars. Pleasure to see you again. I'm basically based in Dubai currently, enjoying the nice weather, I would say. What about you?
Lars Markull: Yeah, as mentioned, we spoke in the pre-chat, I'm in Berlin right now at home and it snowed last night. So I guess the weather couldn't be any different between me and you. But there is obviously a common denominator, what we are going to talk about today. And obviously the topic is high level embedded finance, but more specifically focusing on the things you are building specifically in Saudi Arabia around consumer car financing in an embedded finance journey.
Before we get into that, I'm quite keen to understand how you decided to end up there. And looking at your profile, at your CV, you have done quite a few things in the world of fintech. So quite interesting. How did you get started with fintech? What was the initial motivation to enter the world of financial services?
How Ali got into fintech
Ali Tabbalat: Awesome. Thank you, Lars. It's again a pleasure to be here. So basically I've started, I would say my background is investment banking. So I've done like seven or eight years investment banking. I have an MBA in finance. So the typical investment banking track is to do private equity, money market instruments, buy side and sell side and whatnot.
And I guess around 2013, fintech at the time was just the new thing, I would say like 12 years ago. And honestly I knew right away, like this is going to be the future of finance. At the time I had also been super bored with my corporate career. I was unsatisfied. The idea I understood of fintech at the time is really to solve around inefficiencies in the service space.
Currently I'm doing EmFlex, but previously I've done two fintech startups also in the lending space. One is called Sulfi, which is a salary advance solution based out of Jordan. And one is Quick Claim, which is a supply chain financing solution in the medical space, catering to healthcare providers.