Ali Sattar

Ali Sattar is the founder and CEO of SimpliFi. Sattar has over 20 years of experience in banking, global corporations, and over 10 years of experience in the financial markets and private equity sector in the region.  

With an extensive track record in scaling ventures across regional markets, customer segments and product categories, Sattar has an abundant wealth of knowledge in the fintech, payments and telecommunication sectors, and he has played a pivotal role establishment of a dynamic portfolio of startups, previously holding positions at Next Billion Advisors, Rally Cap Ventures, and Private Practice.  

In 2017, Sattar joined Careem as Managing Director to lead the launch of the organization’s digital payment division, Careem Pay. Sattar established and managed the successful operations of the region's leading digital wallet base with over 35 million users across 13 markets. These also included overseeing wallet and card-on-file payments, third-party use cases, and full functional responsibility for the product, engineering, regulatory, commercial and operations departments at Careem. 

Prior to joining Careem, Sattar held the position of Head of Strategy at VEON, overseeing operations in the emerging markets division, managing over 100 million users, and achieving over US$3 billion in revenues. In 2009, Sattar joined DTAC as Chief Strategy Officer and Advisor to the CEO, where he was responsible for many strategic partnerships and acquisitions, corporate strategy, and new business development.  

Following a successful tenure at DTAC, Sattar joined Telenor Group as Vice President and Head of FinTech expanding the financial services business for the group across five markets in Asia; attaining several accomplishments as the leading mobile operator. At Telenor Group, Sattar broadened his fintech experience advising as a Board Member and Chairman of Governance, Risk, Audit Committee for MicroEnsure in the UK, and advising as a Board Member for PaySBuy in Thailand, and Digi Financial Services in Malaysia.  

Combining his entrepreneurial spirit with his passion for innovation, Sattar founded SimpliFi in July 2020 with a vision to democratize payment for financial corporate institutions through an innovative Cards as a Service (CaaS) platform, SimpliFi. Since its launch, Sattar has spearheaded the fintech startup’s position, expanding to five markets across the Middle East and North Africa and Pakistan regions, with a vision to become the leading CaaS platform, securing over $5.1 million in seed funding to build new revenue systems and streamline business operations for tech companies, corporations and financial institutions in the region. Through SimpliFi, Sattar aims to empower businesses to enhance their payment processes through white-labelled pre-paid cards applications and end-to-end program capabilities..