Rohith Reji on scaling Neokred, tech and talent to the Middle East

As Neokred expands into the Middle East, the company is taking more than just products into new markets, it is exporting the digital infrastructure and learnings shaped by India’s fast-evolving fintech ecosystem.

In this exclusive conversation, Rohith Reji, Co-founder and CEO of Neokred, discusses why the Middle East is the right next step, how regulatory shifts are shaping technology and talent strategies, and why the future of digital infrastructure will demand system thinkers who understand technology, compliance, and economics together.

For Rohith, entering the Middle East market is well-timed and driven by a powerful convergence. “Digital and India are working together, and the Middle East is also undergoing a digital transformation that mirrors something similar to what India has gone through,” he shared.

“For us, this opportunity is not just about selling software. What we are trying to do is export the entire public infrastructure stack, or the stack we’ve been building. We see this as a way to bring in the plumbing and the tools needed to build the entire tech stack, along with our products such as Blutic, a consent management platform that ensures organisations can collect consent more effectively.”

He believes that with their experience in India, entering a region focused on rapidly scaling digital infrastructure feels like the right time.

“From a talent perspective, these markets force us to think beyond technical capabilities and adapt to regional work culture. We don’t just hire coders, we hire product leaders who understand the user journey and can help us build the narrative for the Middle East market,” Rohith added.

Rohith shared that given the rapid transformations, the tech industry is facing a talent crunch, and instead of focusing only on skills, Neokred prioritises hiring potential.

“We have always focused on bringing in talent with high potential. During recruitment, we don’t ask, ‘Can you build this feature?’ Instead, we ask, ‘How would you architect something if the user deletes data?’”

“For example, in the Blutic product, we don’t ask whether someone can build a specific feature. Instead, we ask how they would respond if the worst-case scenario happens.”

“So the real question is about foresight. Are we looking only for skills, or for capabilities with an attitude toward learning?”

As for privacy and compliance regulations in the region, he explained, “We don’t view regulation as a hurdle, we see it as a product specification. That’s why we started building products early with privacy at the core. We realised that privacy cannot be a patch applied later; it has to be foundational.

As we enter the Middle East, we are designing our architecture to be jurisdiction-agnostic. Our systems support a consent-first model, similar to India’s account aggregator framework. This gives us early direction on how and what we need to build.”

Explaining how these shifts influence Neokred’s hiring approach, Rohith added, “It has also pushed us to think beyond conventional roles. For example, we are exploring hiring policy engineers, people who can read regulatory circulars and translate them into code. They understand what can and cannot be done, how regulatory sandboxes work, and how policy maps to technology. Our objective is to make the wall between law and technology very transparent.”

For expansion into new markets, organisations need not only talent but also leadership vision to support scaling.

“Our biggest asset is battle-hardened scalability. We have always built under heavy regulation where innovation often came with constraints,” Rohith shared.

“Building for a market like India, with thin margins and intense competition, has taught us efficiency and resilience. Now, in the Middle East, we are applying those learnings while operating with fewer constraints.

Regulatory sandboxes are becoming common in the region, which allows us to innovate faster than traditional players. This creates a strong stepping stone toward launching for larger global markets.

That confidence is extremely valuable as we scale internationally,” he added.

“Earlier, we were centrally driven and largely HQ-oriented. With new offices coming up, we are moving toward pod-based structures, self-contained teams that own outcomes,” Rohith shared.

“We are also shifting toward decentralised communication. You can’t run a global company with everyone on a single video call.

So we are documenting decisions and strategies market-wise. This allows developers to understand what is happening globally and access expertise across teams. Cross-cultural collaboration becomes easier when knowledge is documented and shared,” he added.

“We position ourselves as ‘Made in India, built for the world.’ India remains our engine room of innovation,” Rohith said.

“We tell our teams that they are not just building for a market, they are building intellectual property for the world. That sense of ownership is powerful.

We also offer global mobility. Teams in Bangalore know that if they solve something unique, they might be the ones flying to new markets to implement it. In that sense, we are exporting not just talent, but excellence in thought.”

When it comes to rewarding talent, he added, “We focus on celebrating small wins. It keeps teams grounded and connected while fostering innovation. People feel they are building something extraordinary with real impact, especially when their work scales across borders.

What we offer that global organisations often fail to give their talent is ownership. Our talent is not just part of a system, they are the system. This reflects in how employees return to Neokred even after leaving once. Some alumni have grown into country heads and senior leaders. We don’t just create engineers; we create success stories.”

Rohith also shared how Neokred’s leadership team has evolved over time.

“My leadership team today is much smarter than me. They hold the ground, and through them I stay closely connected to what’s happening across the organisation.”

He added that his role as a leader navigating global growth is largely about guiding teams through transition. This leadership style helps build innovative and resilient teams.

“We are moving away from isolated fintech systems, like standalone KYC platforms, toward verifiable data ecosystems, where payments, identity, and consent exist as part of a single seamless layer,” Rohith said.

He emphasised that cross-functional skills collaboration will become increasingly important.

“Because of this shift, developers need to understand economics, not just code. Product managers need to understand compliance. The industry is moving away from hyper-specialisation toward system thinking, understanding how different components connect.

He also noted the growing impact of AI in the workplace.

“AI agents are transforming the way work gets done. A single employee can now operate across multiple functions. A go-to-market professional might work with AI agents, compliance teams, and developers simultaneously.

AI helps remove friction, summarising regulations, assisting with code reviews, and accelerating research. What once took two days can now take 30 minutes.

This is the future of work, combining system thinking with AI, where technology amplifies human potential and dramatically improves speed and efficiency.”