Shabbir Maimoon is the founder of Zahln, a payment network built to give Germany back control over how it pays.

A large share of digital payments in Germany runs through Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, three American companies that charge merchants a fee on every sale and hold the infrastructure Europe’s everyday commerce depends on. At the same time, more than half of all transactions in Germany are still made in cash. Zahln addresses both problems at once. It runs on SEPA Instant, Europe’s own banking rails: customers pay by QR code or a tap of their phone, money moves directly from account to account within seconds, and merchants keep every euro of the sale. No American card scheme, no terminal, no transaction fees.

India showed with UPI that a country can build its own payment network and bring hundreds of millions of people into digital payments within a few years. Sweden, Poland and Spain have built strong domestic systems of their own. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, still relies on cash and foreign networks. Shabbir, who grew up between India and Kuwait, is building the alternative.

Zahln is launching on university campuses, starting with a confirmed pilot at Shabbir’s own university, where he studies International Information Systems. Several Studierendenwerke and cities have signed letters of intent.
Zahln was selected for the YFN incubator, reached the top 10 at YFN Event 10.0 in Leipzig, pitched at Demo Day at Delta Campus Berlin, was showcased at VivaTech Paris with the IHK delegation and reached Phase 2 of the BayStartUP Business Plan Competition.