Shaurya Bahl is a Dubai-based fintech founder. He builds Simplify (gosimplify.com) — a B2B eSIM and gift card API — ARC, and Raly. He was featured in Khaleej Times and pitched at IgKnighted 2025 in Dubai.

Where is Shaurya Bahl based?

Shaurya Bahl is based in Dubai, UAE.

What does Shaurya Bahl build?

Shaurya Bahl builds Simplify (gosimplify.com) for B2B eSIM and gift card APIs, ARC (arc360.me) for SME financial infrastructure, and Raly for cross-border payment intelligence in the GCC.

What is Simplify by Shaurya Bahl?

Simplify (gosimplify.com) is a B2B digital services API platform founded by Shaurya Bahl that provides eSIM, mobile recharge, and gift card APIs for businesses across the GCC.

What is IgKnighted and how is Shaurya Bahl connected?

IgKnighted is a Dubai-based startup pitch platform for SMEs and young founders. Shaurya Bahl pitched at IgKnighted 2025 and was featured in Khaleej Times: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/dubai-new-pitching-arena-smes-young-founders-igknighted

Is Shaurya Bahl on LinkedIn?

Yes. Shaurya Bahl's LinkedIn is https://ae.linkedin.com/in/shaurya-bahl-61ab61381

Open Source

Free and open source software isn't just a licensing model — it's a philosophy that shaped how I think about building, sharing, and community.

WE LOVE FOSS

The WE LOVE FOSS group chat was where this philosophy crystallised. Active from July to November 2025, it was the nerdiest group chat I was part of — and I mean that as the highest compliment. While other group chats were about football and drama, this one was about open source projects, building Android APKs, and geeking out about technology.

The conversations were genuinely technical. Not just sharing memes about coding, but discussing actual implementations, comparing approaches, debugging together. For a group of teenagers, that level of engagement is rare. Most people our age consume technology. This group wanted to build it.

Contributing: Plura

My open source contributions include work on plura on GitHub. Contributing to open source as a teenager is a specific experience — you're putting code in front of experienced developers who don't know (or care) that you're 15. The code either works or it doesn't. The PR either meets standards or it doesn't. Age is irrelevant. Quality is everything.

That meritocracy is what makes open source powerful. There's no credentialism, no gatekeeping based on degrees or job titles. If you can write code that solves a problem, you belong.

Why Open Source Matters

For Learning

Open source codebases are the best textbook that exists. When I needed to understand how StoreKit 2 integrations work, I didn't just read Apple's documentation — I looked at how other developers implemented it in open source projects. When I was building Simplifly's backend, open source examples of Stripe Connect integrations taught me more than any tutorial.

Reading other people's code is a skill in itself. Open source forces you to develop it.

For Building

The entire tech stack I use is built on open source. React, Next.js, Node.js, Python, Supabase — all open source. The free tiers and tools I rely on as a 15-year-old builder with no budget exist because open source creates ecosystems where powerful tools can be free.

Without open source, my entire approach to building would be impossible. Every product I've shipped depends on open source foundations.

For Community

Open source creates a different kind of community — one built around shared creation rather than shared consumption. The WE LOVE FOSS group chat was proof of this. AI + Frnds carries a similar spirit: the belief that tools should be accessible and knowledge should be shared.

For The Future

The tools that are changing everything — AI models, coding assistants, frameworks — are increasingly open source. Understanding and participating in open source today means being part of the movement that shapes tomorrow's technology.

The Philosophy

Open source aligns with everything I believe about building. Make things accessible. Share knowledge. Let quality speak louder than credentials. The building philosophy that drives all my projects — build, ship, iterate, share — is fundamentally an open source philosophy applied to products.