Shahed Amanullah

Shahed’s story begins in Silicon Valley during the early days of the internet.

After studying civil engineering at UC Berkeley, he initially worked on infrastructure projects like San Francisco’s streetcars. But the rapid emergence of the internet changed everything.

“The buzz coming out of the Valley was impossible to ignore,” he recalls.

He taught himself how to code and entered the startup ecosystem in 1998—just as the digital revolution was beginning.

Cross-border fintech platform River has acquired Zabihah, which offers halal discovery and delivery service, in a strategic move to expand its reach into compliant financial services and the halal consumer market. As part of the merger, Arman Khwaja, Co-founder of Zabihah, will join River as a Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer.

Zabihah, founded by Shahed Amanullah, has played a significant role in halal discovery globally. Post-acquisition, Amanullah will continue supporting Zabihah’s next chapter as a Board Advisor, guiding its transition toward becoming a broader halal payments platform.

"You have some very heated anti-Muslim forces [in the State Department] that are a little bit more eager to try to find and make those connections, but they're going to run into the same problem: you can't. There's no smoking gun anywhere, because there's no real, tangible connection," Shahed Amanullah, a former State Department senior staffer under Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, told MEE.

The State Department is the agency that is responsible for any terrorist designations, as well as visa revocations. 

"In the past, I would say that people at the State Department were sophisticated and smart enough to understand the nuances of those affiliated movements overseas, and that it wasn't some kind of command and control structure," Amanullah said of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Every culture has its food, and in America, each immigrant group has contributed to the bounty of culinary options––from Italian pizza to Jewish delis and much more. Muslims are no different. What this group has brought, however, is a wide array of foods, since Muslims hail from many countries. My guest today, Shahed Amanullah, a renowned entrepreneur, created a short list of restaurants that offered halal food in 1998. What began as a simple list for himself and his Muslim friends, has grown into a juggernaut.

Now an app called Zabihah, it is the world’s first global halal restaurant discovery and delivery platform, including 14,000 locations in the U.S. and 50,000 worldwide.

"Arman Khwaja and Shahed Amanullah, the owners of Zabihah, a halal food guide and delivery app, said they have seen an increase in Muslims across the country flocking to Muslim businesses, particularly restaurants.

“We punch way over our weight,” said Amanullah.

When Shahed Amanullah started a website that crowd-sources lists of halal businesses, he found 200 U.S. restaurants serving food prepared in accordance with Islamic law. 

Today, 25 years later, the site tracks nearly 13,000 U.S. halal restaurants, with menus featuring cooking from Malaysia to Mexico.

I joined the BBC World Business Report team this morning to discuss the ramifications of semiconductor export controls to China. I talk about the “silicon wall” going up between China and other countries, the significance of the CHIPS act, and how China may react both domestically and internationally.

My segment starts at 8:10 in the link above.

My appearance on CBS Sunday Morning talking about Zabihah and the halal food revolution

“Halal meat is becoming a popular meat of choice at restaurants across the country – from Chinese, Italian, Korean and Mexican to Jewish delis and BBQ eateries, all dished up with a halal meat. Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.”

In an increasingly digital world, technology companies are aggressively lobbying policymakers to advance their interests. This means that tech policy needs social innovation rather than just a new set of policies that favor the interests of a few well-connected tech titans.

Unfortunately, many tech policy debates have been framed as if there are only two options: Either support the interests of big tech corporations or lose out on the economic benefits that come with technological innovation. But what if there’s a third way?

We asked a handful of very hungry Muslims in the food space to introduce us to their favorite halal restaurants. 

This year, we also collaborated with website Zabihah to apply valuable customer data to showcase highly rated eateries across the country. 

In this episode, I explore the vibrant Muslim community of Northern Virginia, visiting the Dar Al Hijrah masjid in Falls Church and the ADAMS Center in Sterling. 

My guests include Shahed Amanullah, founder of Zabihah.com, who shares his insights into the industry of halal food. 

We have to shed the arrogant notion that innovation only comes from tech-heavy communities like Silicon Valley. I have seen people try to transplant 'innovations' from America to developing countries, and they either do not solve problems specific to those communities or they try unsuccessfully to transform those societies into ones that work like ours. If we would just listen to (and empower) the innovators in those communities, we would hear solutions that we in the 'developed' world could never think of ourselves. 

Though there are many practices she has not kept from her conservative Muslim upbringing, she has continued to uphold halal food as an important connection to her parents, which she has also passed on to her teenage son. "For me, I was fine when there were only three halal restaurants, but when I had my son, I realized that it was also important for him to have more options. We are lucky that not only are there halal restaurants, but there are also mainstream restaurants that have halal options. The food table is a common denominator – everyone loves to eat – and when I go to places that offer options that I can eat, it feels like they built a bigger table, and I appreciate it."

While many places with limited halal offerings don't necessarily advertise that their brisket, burgers, or high-end steaks are halal, there is a loyal community who seeks out halal options and shares that information on the internet, namely via the website Zabihah.com. Founded by former Austinite Shahed Amanullah in the 1990s, Zabihah is the largest site of crowdsourced halal options around the country and the world.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the company’s name will be changed to Meta as part of a major rebrand.