| Field | Detail |
| Case Number | JCL-2026-002 |
| Subject Category | Entrepreneurship |
| Industry | Fintech, Financial Services, Remittances |
| Primary Source | Junction Podcast Series, Episode 04: interview with Nabid Hasan, Founding Member and Director of Growth & Embedded Product Management, myZoi |
| Interview Date | 05 October 2026 |
| Case Author | Md Rashid Munasib Islam, Junction Case Lab, Junction Bangladesh |
| Additional Data Sources | Generalized experience, company publications, public reports, website, and other relevant sources |
| Published by | Junction Case Lab, Junction Bangladesh |
Copyright © Junction Bangladesh. All rights reserved. This case is published by Junction Case Lab for educational purposes. Proper acknowledgement of the author(s) and Junction Case Lab, Junction Bangladesh, is required when citing or referencing this case.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Fintech, Financial Inclusion, Embedded Products, Team Building, Decision Making
Introduction
For millions of low-income migrant workers in the Gulf, earning a salary is not the hard part. Using it safely, spending it digitally, and sending it home affordably is. Many are turned away by traditional banks because of high minimum balance requirements, such as 5,000 AED. Without a bank account, they cannot build a financial history, and without a financial history, formal finance stays out of reach.
myZoi was built to serve this overlooked group. It is a fintech and remittance wallet provider licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), designed for workers from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. Nabid Hasan, a founding member and today Director of Growth & Embedded Product Management at myZoi, shared the company’s story on Episode 04 of the Junction Podcast Series.
The journey was not only about technology. It required earning the trust of people who had little reason to trust formal financial institutions, working within strict regulation, and building a team across many cultures around a single social mission.
Entrepreneurship Insight: Some of the most important ventures start by serving people whom existing institutions consider too costly or too risky to serve. An unserved customer group is often an unmet need hiding in plain sight.
Chapter 1: Foundation and Discovery
A Problem Seen Up Close
myZoi did not begin in a startup accelerator. It began among former colleagues who had worked together at Standard Chartered Bank across several countries. The venture grew out of that shared professional background.
For Nabid, the problem was also personal. Growing up, he watched relatives struggle with the high costs, long delays, and friction of sending remittances from the UAE. What may look like a routine transaction to a bank was, for these families, a real struggle.
Why Banks Stayed Away
The founders recognized that the exclusion of migrant workers was not accidental. It followed from how banks make decisions:
- High minimum balance requirements, such as 5,000 AED, that low-income workers could not meet
- No credit history, which made the workers look risky on paper
- Compliance costs that made serving small-balance customers unattractive for traditional banks
The result was a gap. Workers earned, saved, and sent money home, but largely outside the formal system.
Defining the Offer
The founders built a wallet around the worker’s real needs. myZoi allows workers to:
- Receive their salaries
- Store funds securely
- Make digital payments
- Send remittances home
- Build a financial history over time
Teaching Highlight: Founder-Problem Fit. Founders who have lived close to a problem, whether through personal experience or professional insight, often understand customer pain points more precisely than outside observers. Here, professional banking expertise and personal family experience combined to reveal an overlooked market.
Chapter 2: Earning Trust
The Trust Gap
A licensed product alone does not guarantee adoption. Many migrant workers distrust formal banking channels, and their lack of credit history makes banks reluctant to serve them. For myZoi, winning trust was as important as building the wallet.
Trust by Design
The company built trust into how the product reached and served workers:
- Employer partnerships: By working directly with employers, myZoi made onboarding seamless. Workers could be introduced to the wallet through an organization they already knew.
- Fee transparency: Fees were made absolutely clear, with no hidden monthly maintenance charges.
- Early free transactions: Initial free transactions, such as mobile recharges, let workers try the service without risk and see that it worked as promised.
Each choice addressed a specific fear. Employer partnerships lowered the barrier to entry, transparency answered the suspicion of hidden costs, and free first uses replaced promises with experience.
Teaching Highlight: Trust as a Product Feature. In markets where customers have been underserved or burned before, trust does not come from advertising. It is built through distribution partners, clear pricing, and low-risk first experiences.
Chapter 3: Regulation, Infrastructure, and the Embedded Model
Working within a Regulated Industry
Financial services are among the hardest sectors to enter. Licensing, compliance, and risk controls demand capital and expertise long before a product reaches its first customer. myZoi operates as a CBUAE-licensed provider, which gives it the legitimacy to serve customers but also places heavy regulatory responsibilities on the business.
A Comparison with Bangladesh
Drawing on the Bangladesh context, Nabid observed that mobile financial services such as bKash have matured the local landscape. Yet he saw a gap in foundational infrastructure for new startups. Without that foundation, new startups find it hard to launch and test ideas.
The Embedded Products Idea
myZoi’s answer is the concept of embedded products. A licensed provider carries the heavy regulatory compliance in the background, while innovative startups build on top of that foundation. The arrangement allows startups to:
- Launch and test ideas quickly
- Avoid massive initial capital outlays
- Rely on a licensed provider for regulatory compliance
For myZoi, this extends the business beyond its own wallet. Its licensed infrastructure becomes a platform that other ventures can use.
Teaching Highlight: Platform Thinking. Capabilities that are expensive to build, such as licences and compliance systems, can become an asset when shared. Owning the hard-to-replicate layer lets a venture serve its own customers and enable others at the same time.
Chapter 4: Building a Multicultural, Mission-Driven Team
Many Countries, One Team
myZoi’s customers come from several countries, and so does its workforce. The team includes employees from 28 different countries. Working in such an environment, Nabid noted, requires appreciation for different cultural communication styles.
Hiring for Purpose
Beyond skills, Nabid emphasized hiring people who are deeply passionate about the mission of social impact. A team that cares about financial inclusion for workers is more likely to stay committed through regulatory hurdles, slow trust-building, and the uncertainty of a young company.
Teaching Highlight: Culture and Mission Alignment. Diversity brings a wider range of perspectives, but a shared purpose is what holds a diverse team together. Recruiting for mission fit can create a resilient, purpose-driven organization.
Chapter 5: Advice for the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
Take Action
Asked what he would tell students and aspiring entrepreneurs, Nabid’s message centered on action over preparation. His advice to young professionals can be summarized in four points:
- Start: Take action rather than waiting for the perfect moment.
- Fail early: Treat early failure as a learning opportunity.
- Use AI tools: Leverage AI to accelerate building.
- Release early: Launch early versions of a product to gather real-world user feedback rather than waiting for perfection.
From Advice to Ecosystem
This advice connects to myZoi’s own approach. The embedded products model gives startups a way to release early and learn from real users without first raising large amounts of capital. In this sense, Nabid’s counsel to students and the company’s business strategy point in the same direction: lower the cost of trying, and let evidence guide the next step.
Teaching Highlight: Learning by Launching. Early releases turn assumptions into evidence. Real users reveal what matters faster than planning alone, and early failures are cheaper than late ones.
Looking Ahead
myZoi now looks to the next five years with two ambitions. It aims to expand beyond the UAE into other Gulf states and international markets, and to broaden its embedded product offerings to support incoming startups.
Both ambitions are attractive, and both carry risk. Entering new countries means new regulators, new licensing requirements, and new worker communities whose trust must be earned from scratch. Growing the embedded platform means serving a different customer, the startup founder, alongside the migrant worker who made the company’s mission distinctive.
This raises a strategic question. Should myZoi deepen its role as a financial inclusion provider for migrant workers and replicate it across new markets, or should it invest more heavily in becoming a platform that enables other fintech ventures? The answer will shape whether myZoi remains a focused solution for one underserved group or grows into a broader financial infrastructure player.
Discussion Questions
- What entrepreneurial opportunity did Nabid Hasan and his co-founders identify that traditional banks overlooked?
- Is myZoi a necessity-driven venture or an opportunity-driven venture? Support your answer.
- How did the founders’ backgrounds at Standard Chartered Bank and Nabid’s personal experiences shape the venture?
- Why are migrant workers excluded from traditional banking, and how does myZoi address each barrier?
- What is the value proposition of myZoi, and for whom?
- How did myZoi build trust among workers who distrust formal banking channels?
- Why might partnering with employers be an effective distribution strategy? What risks could it create?
- What does “embedded product” mean, and how does it lower the barrier for new fintech startups?
- Compare the fintech environment in Bangladesh with the one Nabid describes. What infrastructure gaps remain for Bangladeshi startups?
- What are the benefits and challenges of leading a team drawn from 28 countries?
- If you were Nabid, which path would you prioritize over the next five years: geographic expansion or a stronger embedded products platform? Why?
- What lessons can aspiring Bangladeshi entrepreneurs learn from this case?