Identifying a major challenge for African small businesses in accessing financing, he founded pumpkn.io. This platform provides a concrete alternative to traditional systems by rethinking credit criteria to better support the continent's entrepreneurs.

Zaheer Dindar (photo), a South African entrepreneur, is the co-founder and CEO of pumpkn.io, a fintech company providing innovative financing solutions for small businesses and agro-entrepreneurs in Africa.

Dindar launched pumpkn.io in Johannesburg in 2022 with Jérôme van Innis and Fazlur Pandor. The company aims to address the financing gap, a significant barrier to growth for many small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa's agricultural and agri-food sectors.

The digital platform developed by pumpkn.io leverages artificial intelligence and a risk assessment model based on clients' specific business data, moving beyond traditional banking criteria. This approach allows the company to accelerate financing decisions, reduce administrative paperwork, and offer direct access to credit without requiring collateral, which is often unattainable for many entrepreneurs in the sector.

Pumpkn.io's innovation also includes its "Funding Ladder" concept. This system enables entrepreneurs to initially access small amounts of financing. Through regular repayments, they can gradually increase borrowed amounts and loan durations. This model supports business growth with a progressive approach tailored to each company's development.

Before co-founding pumpkn.io, Dindar launched Equipedia in 2010, a platform focused on educating subsistence farmers. He holds a bachelor's degree in computational and applied mathematics from the University of the Witwatersrand, earned in 2003, and a master's degree in artificial intelligence from the same university in 2004.

His professional career began in 2007 as a research associate at AB Bernstein, a financial firm. In 2011, he became director of FeverTree Consulting, a South African business advisory company. Five years later, in 2016, he was appointed project manager at Landbank, South Africa's public agricultural bank. From 2020 to 2022, Dindar served as managing partner at BeyondSoil, a South Africa-based management consulting firm.

Melchior Koba