Unraveling Zaki Farooq’s Financial Exploits and Misadventures

Zaki Farooq’s path from financial malpractices and venturing into PayFuture

Even as India’s fintech industry reels under investigations and issues, a brewing story in Europe highlights some issues about another fintech company operating in India.

PayFuture is a platform ‘providing local payment acceptance, pay-outs and crossborder settlements in multiple emerging markets’ as per their Instagram platform. A story in Investing Insider claims that Zaki Ahmad Farooq, a British entrepreneur previously involved in financial malpractices and banned from conducting business in Britain is a part of this fintech company now.

Though he is not listed as a Director or Co-Founder in the company’s registration documents, Farooq claims to be the co-founder of the company in various interviews and social media posts. The company has already raised eyebrows by declaring a share capital of just £2. This, along with other concerning facts, has brought attention to Farooq’s business practices and history.

The article states that Farooq’s previous company COMPUTRAD (EUROPE) LIMITED collapsed and it owes £3 million to its creditors still.

An article in Forbes with Manpreet Haer, who is the registered director of the company in UK, published in 2022, portrays a good success story. PayFuture operates across 40 countries and handling transactions worth billions of dollars, according to this article.

“PayFuture’s ability to resolve that issue has seen it grow remarkably quickly since its launch in 2019 – despite raising no finance from external investors, with the founders of the fintech bootstrapping its development themselves.” according to the Forbes article.

Questions arise regarding PayFuture’s legitimacy, particularly due to Farooq’s absence from official registers associated with the platform in Britain. His dubious track record, including his involvement in the collapse of COMPUTRAD (EUROPE) LIMITED, raises concerns about his transparency and credibility.

The article in Investing Insider raises questions about Farooq’s partnership with Haer and PayFuture’s governance and accountability. The low share capital of PAYFUTURE SOFTWARE LIMITED further enhances the skepticism around its credibility.