Arun Dobriyal is the head of engineering at Vartana, a unified B2B (business-to-business) financing platform. Using his expertise, he has worked to reform the old, outdated practices of the B2B financing industry. Dobriyal’s success has resulted from his sense of purpose, resilience, hard work, and innovation.
Born in India to a lower-middle-class family, Dobriyal’s early life was difficult. The family’s poverty had a lasting impact on him, teaching him to persevere in the face of scarcity and to be grateful for what he did have. He was drawn to computer science at a young age and had a natural affinity for technological innovation. Determined to succeed and acquire more knowledge in his chosen field, Dobriyal embarked on a career in financial technology (fintech).
Many find financial technology (fintech) challenging and daunting to understand. As intimidating as fintech can be to grasp, it has a crucial role in driving the economy’s success by providing financial services. Dobriyal grasped the critical role of this technology and was inspired to bring his innovative ideas to his future positions.
Arun Dobriyal
In his professional career, he has brought his expertise to well-known tech giants like Meta and Snapchat. At Meta, Dobriyal spearheaded the development of an in-house direct debit functionality. During a crisis that threatened the access of global advertisers to the company’s advertising platform, his leadership was instrumental in resolving the issue.
As the head of engineering at Vartana, Dobriyal has garnered a reputation for improving efficiency, transparency, and accessibility through fintech. His work has empowered small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) by granting them faster access to necessary capital. Under Dobriyal’s leadership, Vartana’s pioneering sales-closing platform has earned acclaim and spurred on the company’s successful Series B funding round.
Dobriyal remains steadfast in his commitment to reshaping the future of B2B financing through innovative initiatives.
Payment systems are the backbone of economic transactions. The evolution of these systems has reshaped the financial landscape in the United States. Payment systems like PayPal, Square, and Stripe have empowered SMEs with affordable, easy-to-use payment solutions. These systems are vital to small businesses, allowing them to scale operations, expand their customer base, and contribute to job creation and economic growth. Secure and efficient online payment systems have fueled the growth of e-commerce.
Online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and numerous other platforms have created new business models and expanded market reach. Expertise is needed to build these systems that integrate software engineering, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, user experience design, and strategic planning.
Dobriyal underscores the importance of understanding real-world payment scenarios’ nuances when building scale payment systems. He highlights critical factors essential for scalability, such as a framework for the precise handling of monetary transactions, system idempotency to prevent issues like double charging or erroneous refunds, compliance with regulatory standards such as PCI-DSS (Payment card industry data security standard), and security features such as rate limiting, fraud detection, and data encryption to deter malicious actors and garner user trust.
Dobriyal also emphasizes well-designed developer APIs to facilitate seamless integration and optimize data retrieval processes.
“Choosing the right technology stack is crucial. Modern payment systems often leverage cloud computing, microservices architecture, and APIs to enable scalability and flexibility. These technologies ensure that the system can handle increased loads and integrate easily with other services,” he says.
The design of the payment interface should prioritize user experience and establish that the process is intuitive. This reduces friction at checkout and provides multiple payment options that cater to diverse customer preferences. Integrating all these elements guarantees that the payment systems are scalable, flexible, and can grow with the businesses they support.
Dobriyal predicts the future environment of scalable payment systems will fuse several important elements: seamless integration of emerging technologies such as blockchain, AI, and machine learning; the broadening of flexible payment options, including digital currencies and contactless payments; bolstered security and privacy measures; prioritization of interoperability and cross-border transactions; and a strong emphasis on enhancing user accessibility. He anticipates a profound transformation in fintech and payment processes spurred on by the advancements in AI and machine learning.
As Dobriyal regards the future in the fintech industry, he remains committed to driving positive change through innovation to create a system with vastly improved efficiency, accessibility, and inclusivity. He hopes that technology will serve as a catalyst for empowerment and lift billions out of poverty.
I am excited about a future where financial services are democratized and accessible in real-time, empowering underserved communities worldwide,” Dobriyal says.
