Arabnet Arabnet

Bayzat is an online platform that delivers fast, accurate and up-to-date information on all banking and insurance products and services in the UAE. Launched officially in April 2013, the platform is the first one-stop-shop to offer real-time comparison of health insurance rates in MENA. It has enjoyed a quick and significant success since its release, generating 2000 visitors in the first month and have so far created over $500,000 in revenues.

The story behind Bayzat

The concept of Bayzat-the Khaliji term for “money”- dates back to 2008, when cofounder Talal Bayaa, who was then  working  at Millennium Finance Corporation Bank in Dubai ,found it difficult to answer client inquiries about deposit rates and insurance aspects. “I started researching for answers, but I couldn’t find an easy platform to compare products,” Bayaa told Arabnet. “Some of the banks had outdated information on their websites. Others had slightly rounded the numbers for marketing purposes.”

But with a full time job and CFA studies, Bayaa was forced to put the idea aside, until he found the right cofounder in 2011: his high school friend and Marketing specialist Brian Habibi. The two put their heads together and started gathering information about all UAE banks and insurance companies. “The goal was to bring transparency to the banking and insurance systems,” Bayaa told Arabnet. “We currently have an in-house employer that calls banks as mystery shopper/client.” Bayzat currently covers 28 UAE banks, as well as health and car insurance companies.

The next challenge was finding the right talent.  With a weak technological background, the cofounders needed to find the right CTO who would share their entrepreneurial vision. “We needed somebody who really loved technology, not just see it as a job. We ended up interviewing around 70 candidates before finding the right talent.”

Funding, Users and Investors

Like many other startups, Bayzat started as a self-funded platform, costing Bayaa and Habibi a bold $200,000. They were quickly rewarded after launching in April 2013, as the site attracted around 2000 visitors in the first few weeks, with a monthly increase of 30% over the last few months. However, Bayaa wasn’t satisfied with the clarity of the website’s message. “When we asked friends to visit the website, it would take them a minute or two to get what it’s all about. So we changed the [message].”

After establishing themselves as one-of-a-kind platform, Bayaa and Habibi started seeking individual investors to further develop their platform. They managed to raise $500,000 from anonymous individual investors between the UAE and the US.

“Approaching the UAE investors was [easier]. They know the structure of the market here, and most of them work in banking. The USA investors, on the other hand, needed to know about the lack of technology and transparency in this part of the world.”

Partnership and expansion

The platform’s unprecedented service caught the eye of several platforms and banks. They have recently partnered with classifieds website dubizzle and several anonymous banks.

With all the UAE market on their plates Bayaa and Habibi aren’t considering expanding their platform to any other market soon.  “Every market has its own law and structure to be studied. There’s still so much to cover here before moving to another market.”

Bayzat is currently headquartered in Dubai and is run by 7 employees.