How Qashio co-founded by Cork entrepreneur overcame drone attacks in Dubai — and is creating jobs in Ireland

Dubai-based payments platform plans major Irish growth after extraordinary resilience test during escalating regional conflict

Lydia Foott and Armin Moradi of Qashio.

Experts will tell you that resilience planning should be built into every business plan. But a drone blasting out your data centre isn’t usually part of the scenario modelling.

That was the reality facing growing international fintech Qashio - a company co-founded in July 2022 by Lydia Fott, from Riverstick in Co Cork, and her business partner Armin Moradi from Stockholm - as the Iran conflict spilled into Dubai in late February. Their business plan was put to the test when a drone sent from Iran hit their data centre in the Dubai desert, and a day later their recovery data site was targeted and hit by a second wave of drone attack.