The story of Zabihah

In the mid-1990s, a group of Muslim engineers in Silicon Valley faced a simple problem: after long days at work, they wanted to grab a meal at one of the handful of halal restaurants in the area. To make it easier, one of them threw together a basic webpage listing the options.

What started as a casual dining guide soon took on a life of its own. As early search engines surfaced the list, more and more people discovered it. That's when Shahed Amanullah realized something bigger was happening. In 1998, he officially launched Zabihah, starting with just 200 restaurants—and then waited for the internet to do its thing.

It turned out that a one-stop resource for halal food was exactly what a growing Muslim community needed. Within a few years, Zabihah had become an indispensable tool, guiding users to the best halal spots from Singapore to San Francisco. Travelers swore by it, and users added thousands of new listings. When the iPhone arrived, Apple showcased Zabihah as a featured app, solidifying its reputation as one of the most recognized tech brands in the Muslim world. The Android app followed, and before long, Zabihah had mapped out more than 45,000 halal restaurants and racked up over 750,000 downloads.

Meanwhile, food tech entrepreneur Arman Khwaja, who had already sold one of his companies from his dorm room, saw a new opportunity: halal food delivery. After testing a platform in Dearborn, MI, he saw the potential to merge his vision with Zabihah's legacy and lead it into its next chapter.

Today, under Arman's leadership, Zabihah has grown into a 30-person team, secured its first institutional funding, and is building a one-of-a-kind halal food ecosystem. With a database growing 5% a year for the past 20 years and millions of users worldwide, no one knows the halal food marketplace better—because we helped build it.

Now, we're taking it to the next level. Stay tuned.