Founder-led conversations play a critical role in the startup ecosystem, offering founders, operators, and investors a rare look into how ideas evolve beyond pilot programmes into scalable, compliant businesses. These sessions help demystify growth challenges, regulatory realities, and the infrastructure needed to build trust in emerging markets—an increasingly important conversation as fintech adoption accelerates globally.

Against this backdrop, Tech Revolt, in partnership with the 24SIX9 Dubai chapter, hosted a one-on-one interview featuring Zuhair Shamma’, Co-Founder and CEO of Zest Equity, under the theme “FinTech at the Frontier: Building Scalable, Trusted Financial Innovation.” The session explored fintech innovation in private markets, the founding journey behind Zest, and the practical realities of scaling financial infrastructure beyond proof-of-concept stages.

The conversation focused on how Zest is addressing longstanding inefficiencies in private market transactions across emerging markets. These markets have historically lacked integrated, compliant, and repeatable execution rails, creating friction for funds, syndicates, and investors alike. Zest positions itself as a digital transactional infrastructure company transforming how private market deals are executed, with a strong emphasis on governance, transparency, and institutional-grade workflows.

Zuhair Shamma’ leads Zest’s vision to bring global best practices into markets that are often underserved by traditional financial infrastructure. Drawing on more than a decade of experience in investment banking and private equity, Zuhair has had exposure to over US$16 billion in transactions across multiple sectors and regions. Prior to founding Zest, he held roles at UBS, Delta Partners, Dubai Holding, and Certares, where he built deep expertise in complex deal structuring, cross-border capital flows, and investor operations.

At Zest, this experience translates into building end-to-end digital infrastructure spanning SPVs, escrow, and licensed distribution. The platform enables funds, syndicate leads, and family offices to raise capital, safeguard investor funds, and scale distribution with clarity and confidence, while meeting regulatory and compliance expectations.

The interview also examined the challenges fintech founders face when moving from pilot programmes to repeatable, scalable solutions—particularly in jurisdictions where trust, regulation, and operational consistency are critical barriers to growth. Zuhair shared insights on why compliance and execution discipline are not constraints, but competitive advantages in building long-term financial platforms.

Reflecting on the importance of these conversations, Kasun Illankoon, Editor-in-Chief at Tech Revolt who conducted the interview, stated: “Founder-led discussions like this go beyond headlines. They give the startup community real insight into how financial innovation is built responsibly, where trust, governance, and scalability matter just as much as speed.”