Ziyad Parekh

co-founder and CEO of Safepay

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Ziyad Parekh is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Safepay, a Y Combinator-backed fintech startup. He was born and raised in Karachi. Safepay was the first fintech from Pakistan accepted into Y Combinator.

Early life and background

Parekh grew up in a small family with his parents and one sister, and he lived with his grandparents. His parents placed a strong emphasis on studies while he was growing up. He describes himself as good at sports and says he aimed to be an all-rounder. His uncle and first cousins lived in Dubai, and his family travelled abroad at least once a year. [1]

His parents tried to shelter the family from the violence in Karachi. He recalls chaos on Karachi's streets during the attack on Benazir Bhutto's convoy on Shahrah-e-Faisal. His grandfather was a governor for one year in 1990. [1]

Education

Parekh went abroad to study after finishing high school in Karachi. He spent four years as an undergraduate at Cornell. He studied math and economics and took a concentration in computer science. [1]

Career

Parekh wanted to work at the intersection of finance and technology. He held a full-time job while building something on the side, and he gave up his social life because he needed the money and his full-time job still paid. He learned Go to build performant back-end systems. He chose to start his own company rather than join the family business, and his father did not financially support him after he graduated. [1]

He set out to build a Venmo-style app for Pakistan. The early app used a merchant account from HBL and was free to use, and Parekh paid the fees himself. His father sent him WhatsApp articles about Pakistani companies doing similar things. Parekh decided to try building again and to focus on it fully. [1]

Parekh says it took about six years in the US to get Safepay off the ground. He returned to Pakistan partly to be near his family and help his parents, and he wanted someone from his generation to build things for Pakistan. He says he owed a lot to Pakistan and Karachi and wanted to give back. [1]

Safepay

Early payments landed in Safepay's own account under one merchant ID. Parekh says the team was just two or three people at one point. Safepay's early pricing copied Stripe's, at 2.9% plus 30 rupees. The bank gave Safepay a merchant discount rate on which Safepay added its own margin, and Parekh says 11 cents for every transaction translated to 30 rupees. Safepay screens and speaks to each merchant before setting them live. [1]

In October, the bank that was processing Safepay's payments cut it off. Overnight, Safepay could not process payments for any business. Safepay started offering bank-to-bank payments, not card payments, at that time. PayFast reached out and invited Safepay to integrate its APIs. [1]

Licensing

Safepay applied for a license mainly to gain independence, and the early product was never covered by a license. Parekh says the State Bank might not have taken Safepay seriously without its fundraising. The State Bank let Safepay operate while its license was being processed. Getting the license took about three and a half years. [1]

Safepay holds a Payment Service Provider license. The license lets Safepay work directly with Visa and Mastercard. As a regulated entity, Safepay can integrate directly into Raast. [1]

Funding and scale

Safepay raised funding from Stripe and other venture investors. Parekh says Safepay has raised two funding rounds, one after Y Combinator in 2020 and one in early 2022. He says the two seed rounds, including an extension, totalled about $5.4 million. He says Stripe has become an extremely helpful and active part of Safepay's journey and has written letters to the State Bank at Safepay's request. Stripe has been a major inspiration for Safepay since the start. [1]

Parekh says Safepay processed about $350,000 in one month, growing 10 to 15 percent month over month. He says Safepay processes roughly 1.5 to 2 billion rupees a month across about 400,000 transactions. Safepay at one point processed the same number of transactions as HBL, and it has grown to the same level as some banks. He says Safepay has about 30 people, mostly based in Karachi, and that Islamabad would be the place for a second Safepay office if he ever set one up. He says Safepay is close to profitability and expects to get there in six to eight months, and that it will raise its next round on its own terms, once its next products are ready. [1]

Views on payments

Parekh says Visa and Mastercard pricing is among the most complicated he has seen. Safepay charges less for domestic transactions than for international ones, and it plans to offer businesses a very low-cost price. He describes Pakistan as a very price-sensitive market. [1]

Connecting to Raast requires direct connectivity to State Bank servers and primary and backup sites. Raast currently charges nothing on top of a payment, unlike Visa or Mastercard, and Parekh says it processed about 3.9 trillion rupees of payments in Q3. He is confident that P2M will drastically change how people accept payments online. He says Safepay does not exist in the offline world but could use Raast to enable in-person payment experiences. [1]

The industry is lobbying the State Bank to lower the barrier to entry for merchants. Refunds in Pakistan are still a manual process with banks, and Parekh says Safepay can move faster than banks. He says Pakistan was largely brick-and-mortar before COVID. [1]

Parekh says Safepay has wanted to offer payouts, and merchants have asked for them. Safepay does not offer BNPL itself but can enable BNPL providers. He does not think Safepay will move into lending. [1]

Views on crypto

Parekh has long been a fan of crypto and what it unlocks for people. He wants to take Safepay into crypto and stablecoins. He thinks giving average Pakistanis exposure to crypto is immensely powerful, and he says there is no concept in Pakistan of investing in digital assets as there is in the US. [1]

Views on Pakistan

Parekh is bullish on Pakistan. He expects Karachi to become bigger and more chaotic. He says Pakistan needs to adopt technology more seriously and hopes it can become an example for other countries. [1]

Personal life

Parekh says Pakistan is the only country where he expects to be a first-class citizen. He has visited Russia. [1]

Timeline

1990
His grandfather serves as a governor for one year.[1]
2019
Parekh says he moved from 'I' to 'we' before Safepay's second Y Combinator application.[1]
2020
Safepay completes a funding round after Y Combinator.[1]
2022
Safepay completes a second funding round in early 2022.[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2025-11-17 Shut down overnight, Safepay came back as a licensed rival to Pakistan's banks Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Ziyad Parekh?

Ziyad Parekh is the co-founder and CEO of Safepay, a Y Combinator-backed startup. He was born and raised in Karachi. Safepay was the first fintech from Pakistan accepted into Y Combinator.[1]

What does Ziyad Parekh do?

Ziyad Parekh is co-founder and CEO of Safepay. Safepay holds a Payment Service Provider license, which lets it work directly with Visa and Mastercard. Parekh says it processes roughly 1.5 to 2 billion rupees a month across about 400,000 transactions.[1]

Where did Ziyad Parekh study?

Ziyad Parekh went abroad to study after finishing high school in Karachi. He spent four years as an undergraduate at Cornell. He studied math and economics and took a concentration in computer science.[1]

Where is Ziyad Parekh from?

Ziyad Parekh was born and raised in Karachi. He returned to Pakistan partly to be near his family and help his parents.[1]

What company did Ziyad Parekh found?

Ziyad Parekh is co-founder of Safepay. A co-founder joined Parekh, and together they applied to Y Combinator. Safepay raised funding from Stripe and other venture investors.[1]

What is Ziyad Parekh known for?

Ziyad Parekh is known as co-founder and CEO of Safepay, the first fintech from Pakistan accepted into Y Combinator. Parekh says getting Safepay's license took about three and a half years.[1]

How long did it take Ziyad Parekh to get Safepay off the ground?

Ziyad Parekh says it took about six years in the US to get Safepay off the ground. He held a full-time job while building something on the side.[1]

How much funding has Safepay raised?

Ziyad Parekh says Safepay has raised two funding rounds, one after Y Combinator in 2020 and one in early 2022. He says the two seed rounds, including an extension, totalled about $5.4 million. Stripe is among Safepay's investors.[1]

References

  1. Shut down overnight, Safepay came back as a licensed rival to Pakistan's banks . Thought Behind Things , 2025-11-17.
Show the source passages (94 statements)
  1. Ziyad Parekh is Co-Founder and CEO of Safepay. Ziyad Parekh, Co-Founder & CEO of Safepay
  2. Safepay is a Y Combinator backed startup. a Y-Combinator backed startup
  3. Ziyad Parekh was born and raised in Karachi. born and raised here in Karachi
  4. His parents placed a strong emphasis on studies while he was growing up. my parents, especially my mom, emphasize a lot on studies
  5. He describes himself as good at sports and aimed to be an all-rounder. I was good in sports as well. So trying to always, you know, be an all-rounder
  6. He grew up in a small family with his parents and one sister. we have a small family, it's just me, my sister and my parents
  7. He lived with his grandparents while growing up. I always used to live with my, with my grandparents
  8. His parents tried to shelter the family from the violence in Karachi. my parents actually sheltered or tried to shelter us as much as possible
  9. He recalls chaos on Karachi's streets during the attack on Benazir Bhutto's convoy on Shahrah-e-Faisal. the attack on Benazir Bhutto's convoy on Shahrah-e-Faisal happened. Um, and, and I think that's when, you know, there was a lot of chaos on the streets
  10. His family travelled abroad at least once a year when he was growing up. my parents always tried, uh, to take us at least once a year somewhere abroad
  11. His uncle and first cousins lived in Dubai. my Chacha actually, he lived in Dubai. So his, my, my cousins, my first cousins used to live in Dubai
  12. He went abroad to study after finishing high school in Karachi. all through high school and then I, I, I went abroad for my studies
  13. He spent four years as an undergraduate at Cornell. I, I, I spent four years at, at Cornell in my undergrad
  14. He studied math and economics and took a concentration in computer science. it was math and econ. I ended up doing a concentration in computer science
  15. He held a full-time job while building something on the side. I just had to, you know, see how I could manage a full-time job, all of its responsibilities, as well as trying to build something on the side
  16. He wanted to work at the intersection of finance and technology. So I wanted to explore something at the intersection of finance and technology
  17. He says he owed a lot to Pakistan and Karachi and wanted to give back. So I owed a lot to Pakistan and I owed a lot to Karachi and my community and the people over here. So for me, it was also about trying to do something
  18. He chose to start his own company rather than join the family business. I didn't want to rely on family business mein jaake, you know, you try and grow that and everything. I wanted to start from scratch
  19. His father did not financially support him after he graduated. my dad, obviously, um, financially after I graduated didn't support me
  20. He says it took about six years in the US to get SafePay off the ground. It took me about six years, um, in my, in my journey in the US to ultimately get SafePay off the ground
  21. He returned to Pakistan partly to be near his family and help his parents. My family was here. I wanted to come back and, and help my parents as well
  22. He wanted someone from his generation to build things for Pakistan. someone from our generation, um, to really try and build some, like things for Pakistan
  23. He said Islamabad would be the place for a second SafePay office, if he ever set one up. set up a a second office for SafePay, Islamabad would definitely be a place where I would set it up
  24. He set out to build a Venmo-style app for Pakistan. let's start let's build Venmo for Pakistan
  25. The early app used a merchant account from HBL. merchant account at HBL at the time that was the only bank that was offering a payment gateway
  26. The early app was free to use, and Ziyad paid the fees himself. it was free, but someone was paying for the the fees and and that was me
  27. He gave up his social life because he needed the money and his full-time job still paid. sacrificed my social life because I I I needed the money and my full-time job was still paying me
  28. He learned Go to build performant back-end systems. real back end programming, I hadn't really figured out um like to build performant back end systems. And I needed to learn this new language that people were uh were were building things in called Golang
  29. His father sent him WhatsApp articles about Pakistani companies doing similar things. maybe my dad kept sending me these articles on WhatsApp at the time of companies in Pakistan trying to do similar things
  30. He decided to try building again and to focus on it fully. I decided that I wanted to try something again and this time really focus on it and take it try to take it all the way
  31. Safepay's first Y Combinator application led to an interview. our first application got us an interview and I think we were a bit too um maybe a bit too cocky
  32. Safepay reapplied to Y Combinator and was accepted. we reapplied, we prepared, we we wrote down like every single answer we could possibly think of for our application and alhamdulillah we got in
  33. Safepay was the first fintech from Pakistan accepted into Y Combinator. first Fintech from Pakistan uh to get accepted into Y Combinator
  34. Safepay raised funding from Stripe and other venture investors. raise funding from Stripe and and and a bunch of other very cool VCs
  35. The bank that processed Safepay's payments cut it off in October. in October, the the bank that we were working with to process our payments cut us off and shut us down essentially
  36. Safepay could not process payments for any business overnight. overnight, we were unable to process payments for any business
  37. Safepay started offering bank-to-bank payments, not card payments, at that time. We started offering bank-to-bank payments, not card payments uh at the time
  38. PayFast reached out and invited Safepay to integrate its APIs. PayFast, which is a, you know, a big uh payment uh gateway like like SafePay, they reached out and they were like, you know, you guys have built something incredible. Why don't you integrate our APIs
  39. Safepay applied for a license mainly to gain independence. the main reason for us to apply for the license was to get some semblance of independence
  40. The early product was never covered by a license. it was never governed by any license we had
  41. The State Bank might not have taken Safepay seriously without its fundraising. I don't think the State Bank would have taken us seriously if it if we hadn't raised funds
  42. The State Bank let Safepay operate while its license was being processed. we were able to convince the State Bank to allow us to at least operate while we go through this licensing process
  43. Getting the license took about three and a half years. We didn't realize it would take three and a half years to get the license
  44. Safepay holds a Payment Service Provider license. ours is a PSP license. It's a Payment Service Provider uh license
  45. The license lets Safepay work directly with Visa and Mastercard. So we could we can now work directly with Visa and MasterCard, which we do today
  46. As a regulated entity, Safepay can integrate directly into Raast. because, you know, we're a regulated entity, we get to integrate directly into it
  47. Ziyad says Safepay processes roughly 1.5 to 2 billion rupees a month across about 400,000 transactions. processing roughly around I think 1.5 to 2 billion rupees a month across uh 400,000 transactions
  48. Ziyad says Safepay has raised two funding rounds, one after Y Combinator in 2020 and one in early 2022. two rounds of fundraising. One we did right after Y Combinator in 2020 and then one we did early 2022
  49. Ziyad says the two seed rounds, including an extension, totalled about $5.4 million. There were two seeds, I guess, one seed and one seed extension. But uh in total, it was around $5.4 million
  50. Ziyad says Stripe has become an extremely helpful and active part of Safepay's journey. they've become an extremely helpful and and active part of our of our journey
  51. Ziyad says Stripe has written letters to the State Bank at Safepay's request. They've written letters to the State Bank on our request for certain things
  52. Ziyad says Safepay has about 30 people, mostly based in Karachi. so we're 30 people overall. Um majority of our team's in Karachi and we have a few remote uh workers in Lahore and Islamabad
  53. Early payments landed in Safepay's own account under one merchant ID. it all used to fall into our account because we were essentially one merchant, one merchant ID
  54. Ziyad says Safepay processed about $350,000 in one month, growing 10 to 15 percent month over month. around like $350,000 um in a month that we had processed. Um and you know, that was also growing maybe 10, 15% like month over month
  55. Ziyad says the team was just two or three people at one point. in terms of a team, it was just literally two or three of us
  56. Safepay's early pricing copied Stripe's, at 2.9% plus 30 rupees. I was just literally copying Stripe at the time, 2.9% plus 30 rupees at the time
  57. The bank gave Safepay a merchant discount rate on which Safepay added its own margin. the bank had given us an MDR, which is the merchant discount rate or the fee that they charge. Um and uske upar we had to make our margin
  58. Ziyad says 11 cents for every transaction translated to 30 rupees. 11 cents for every transaction and that translated to 30 rupees
  59. Ziyad says Visa and Mastercard pricing is among the most complicated he has seen. Visa and MasterCard have some of the most complicated complex pricing that I've ever had to experience in my life
  60. Safepay charges less for domestic transactions than for international ones. they also have now made it into our pricing where we charge cheaper for domestic transaction but more for an international transaction
  61. Safepay plans to offer businesses a very low-cost price. we're going to try and do a very, very low cost price for for businesses
  62. Connecting to Raast requires direct connectivity to State Bank servers and primary and backup sites. you have to get direct internet connectivity to the State Bank ke servers and aapko primary and backup sites rakhni hoti hain
  63. Raast currently charges nothing on top of a payment, unlike Visa or Mastercard. currently it's free from the sense that they don't charge anything on top of the payment like a Visa or MasterCard does
  64. Ziyad says Raast processed about 3.9 trillion rupees of payments in Q3. in Q3 they did about 3.9 trillion rupees of payments
  65. He is confident that P2M will drastically change how people accept payments online. I think confident ke when P2M launches, it will drastically shift how um how people accept payments online
  66. Pakistan is a very price-sensitive market. Pakistan is a very price sensitive market
  67. The industry is lobbying the State Bank to lower the barrier to entry for merchants. the industry and and us together with it are lobbying the State Bank and trying to convince them to lower the barrier to entry for a business to start accepting payments
  68. Refunds in Pakistan are still a manual process with banks. So, it's still a very manual-ish kind of process in Pakistan
  69. Safepay can move faster than banks. So, for us, we're able to move faster and get ahead more often than uh than these banks
  70. He named several banks, including HBL and Meezan Bank, along with PayFast and Safepay. So, yeah, I would say the banks, um Alfalah, HBL, Meezan Bank, um and then Payfast and and us
  71. Safepay at one point processed the same number of transactions as HBL. at some point, I think we were doing the same number of transactions as HBL
  72. Safepay has grown to the same level as some banks. we've grown enough now that we're at the same level as some of these banks
  73. Safepay is close to profitability and expects to get there in six to eight months. we're almost there. We're very close. And I think within the next six to eight months, we'll we'll be there
  74. Safepay will raise its next round on its own terms, once its next products are ready. we'll do it on our terms. I think that's also important, in the sense that when we um when we're ready with the next round of products that we want to launch
  75. He has long been a fan of crypto and what it unlocks for people. I've always been a huge fan of um, you know, crypto and what that unlocks for people
  76. He wants to take Safepay into crypto and stablecoins. how to regulate stablecoins in the market, how to leverage this technology to help people in this country and help the country itself. And um, you know, that's something where I also want to take my company and explore into
  77. He thinks giving average Pakistanis exposure to crypto is immensely powerful. being able to give average people in Pakistan who understand this technology or or are curious about it, the ability to gain exposure to it, I think is immensely powerful
  78. Ziyad says there is no concept in Pakistan of investing in digital assets as there is in the US. no concept over here in my opinion of investing in you know, digital assets as as it is in the US
  79. Safepay has wanted to offer payouts, and merchants have asked for them. And for us, it's something that we've been wanting to do, and we've gotten a lot of demand from from businesses who use us today
  80. Ziyad says Safepay does not exist in the offline world but could use Raast to enable in-person payment experiences. we don't exist in the offline world. Raast ke through, we can use our technology and enable a lot of in-person payment experiences
  81. Safepay does not offer BNPL itself but can enable BNPL providers. hum BNPL nahi karte. We we can enable BNPL providers because we do all of the card processing
  82. He does not think Safepay will move into lending. I don't think we'll go into lending
  83. Stripe has been a major inspiration for Safepay since the start. Stripe um has, I mean, from the start, it was a huge inspiration and and still continues to be to this day
  84. Pakistan was largely brick-and-mortar before COVID. Pakistan was before COVID very much brick and mortar
  85. He is bullish on Pakistan. I'm pretty pretty bullish on on things in Pakistan
  86. He expects Karachi to become bigger and more chaotic. we Karachi will definitely become bigger, a bit more chaotic in my opinion
  87. Pakistan needs to adopt technology more seriously. technology is something that we have to adopt more seriously
  88. He hopes Pakistan can become an example for other countries. we should hopefully become examples to other countries
  89. Pakistan is the only country where he expects to be a first-class citizen. this is the only country that we'll be a first class citizen in essentially
  90. He visited Russia a couple of times last year. I actually had the opportunity to go to Russia couple of times last year
  91. His grandfather was a governor for one year in 1990. my my grandfather was a governor for one year back in 1990
  92. A co-founder joined Ziyad, and together they applied to Y Combinator. So he basically joined me and together we applied to Y Combinator and um we've been co-founders since essentially
  93. Ziyad says he switched from 'I' to 'we' in late 2019, before the second Y Combinator application. So me to we was uh I back in late 2019 before our second application to Y Combinator
  94. Safepay screens and speaks to each merchant before setting them live. We'd screen them, we'd speak to them, we'd understand their business model, we'd set them live