Farah Zafar

1. COVER STORY COVER STORY FARAH ZAFAR THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH After more than two decades as a corporate lawyer, Farah Zafar decided to build her own tech platform Lyvely. It is already on course for a $3.2bn valuation and set to change the course of social media Words by Anil Bhoyrul Photography by Rajesh Raghav FarahZafar 20 20 Vol. 24/15, 01–15 December 2023 Vol. 24/15, 01–15 December 2023 arabianbusiness.com 21

2. COVER STORY COVER STORY FARAH ZAFAR Farah Zafar speaking at the Arabian Business Leadership Summit 2023 For its efforts, Lyvely takes an industry standard 20 percent of the revenue. After a very soft trial launch, the platform has attracted more than 5,000 users – each encouraging their followers on other platforms to join them at Lyvely. It has set up payment options with Stripe in 48 countries and is aiming to have 10 million creators on board after three years. Little wonder that Cypher has already taken an undisclosed stake that gives an initial value of $25m on current funding, rising to $3.2bn after further rounds – and that is based on a very low multiple of 10. But for Zafar, this is about more than just making heaps of cash. “Every time you post content on Big Tech platforms, they make money. When’s the last time you got a cheque or received a payment from Insta- gram? It just doesn’t work that way in Big Tech, because it’s a biased and broken system. But Lyvely’s doing it differently. We’re the Platform for the People. Our commitment to our users is to reward them fairly for their contribution to the Lyvely ecosystem.” The numbers back her words, with the global freelancer economy currently estimated at $1.5trn, and the creator economy already worth north of $150bn. Most estimates suggest the world has more than 1.56 billion active freelancers, and by 2030, one in three F Her mission and vision to trans- form the world of social media by allowing everyone to have a digital space that is seamlessly monetised is finally coming to fruition. It’s early days, and only weeks into the soft arah Zafar is in a rush. She always is. The rush to market, the rush to perfection, the rush to invincibility. It’s only 10am, but she has already been up for six hours, plotting, planning, and pivoting the finer details to her newly launched Lyvely platform. launch, but the numbers very quickly start adding up to a $3.2bn valuation. “This is for the masses, not just content creators. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, everyone can get on here, and start making money online. Big Tech does that, but it keeps all the money for itself, we put it in your pockets,” she says. And so welcome to the world of Lyvely, the world created by Farah Zafar – the 49-year-old self-styled “rock star” corporate lawyer that has spent two decades helping build a billion dollar empire for others. Now she is about to get a slice of the cake for herself. How does it feel? “I have spent my entire life working as the right hand to big men. Now the big man is me, I am performing for myself. It can be tough. At the beginning, you have a vision, but the only person who believes in it is you,” she says. It seems plenty of people – inves- tors and users alike – are believing in her vision. Lyvely is the first fully inte- grated content and communication platform, that has been purpose-built, for creators, the gig economy, busi- nesses, and anyone in the world who wants to generate revenue online. The platform has a templated user- friendly site that any user can adapt to promote their services and content, with the same platform also used to take payments. Currently most social media users can only head to OnlyFans or Patreon to monetise content, the latter being more of a payment gateway. So, for example, a fitness instructor on Instagram cannot directly charge his followers for classes. They would traditionally need to send a Zoom link, set up a PayPal account. No one has yet built an integrated platform where users can seamlessly pay for services – and give them a readymade digital headquarters. I have spent my entire life working as the right hand to big men. Now the big man is me, I am performing for myself. It can be tough. At the beginning, you have a vision, but the only person who believes in it is you 22 Vol. 24/15, 01–15 December 2023 arabianbusiness.com 23

3. COVER STORY FARAH ZAFAR passion and purpose. With Lyvely we put the power back in your hands. Our platform and ecosystem is all about personal growth, making meaningful connections, and of course, earning money- on your terms.” Zafar is also one of those rare visionaries where the journey is as interesting as the destination. She initially specialised in UK criminal law before moving to corporate law. In 2000 she was approached to work in the UAE for HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. “He said ‘consider Dubai your home’ – I never left.” She worked as Chief Legal Officer to some of the most prominent quasi government entities including Dubai Holding and the Public Investment Fund. She then moved to Saudi Arabia working for the Crown Prince for three years, but during the Covid pandemic – when she was stuck in an apartment in Riyadh – she first began looking into the idea of starting her own business. She says: “I was in this apart- ment on video calls 24/7. There was a paradigm shift, the gig economy was growing. I was thinking what is the next big thing. That’s how this came about.” Zafar teamed up with Dave Catu- dal (a digital nomad and serial entre- preneur) as her co-founder, and together, the two have pretty much built the entire company from scratch. The duo is now on the cusp on giving the UAE a home grown multi-billion dollar tech platform. China has TikTok, Russia has Tele- gram and India has Josh. Is this the UAE’s moment? It certainly looks and feels that way with Lyvely. It is also worth noting that unlike the founders of many Silicon Valley start ups, Zafar is not a Gen Z whizzkid – she will be 50 next year. If Lyvely wasn’t enough on her plate, Zafar is also currently the group Chief Legal Officer for Phoenix Group, a global leader in the crypto space and one of largest Bitcoin mining distributors and owner/oper- of the entire US population will either be a freelancer or have some kind of freelance side hustle. Zafar explains: “Let’s understand the landscape. Everyone realised that if you are going to make money you have to be online. Retail, ecommerce, food, everyone realised it.” She adds: “What did Big Tech do? Did they ever put the users and creators in control of their content? We are moving to web3 which is meant to be all about decentralisation and digital finance. But Big Tech said “oh, this is great, we will make billions and billions because we are going to track your data and infiltrate what you see and what you hear. They want you to scroll mindlessly, and they get paid, not you.” With a variety of monetisation features, HD video calling, live streaming and a native cryptocur- rency that enhances the users expe- rience while supporting payments and purchases on Lyvely, the company has set its sights on becom- ing the ‘Bridge to Web3’ for hundreds of millions of people who are yet to monetise effectively online or adopt blockchain technology. She explains: “Big tech creates followers. Lyvely create leaders. People who are committed to adding value to other people’s lives and inspiring them to live with more ator of Bitcoin mining facilities across the globe. With Phoenix, she is lead- ing their IPO listing, one of the biggest tech conglomerate listings on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. But if anything, she says that her age is an advantage. “I have more energy. I think if you look at Gen Z, they don’t have it in them to work this hard. I get up at 5.30am. The new generation does not have the hunger passion and commitment to build something like this. This is my time, my moment.” Only a fool would bet against her succeeding. Big tech creates followers. Lyvely create leaders. People who are committed to adding value to other people’s lives and inspiring them to live with more passion and purpose 24 Vol. 24/15, 01–15 December 2023 arabianbusiness.com 25