Our Story.
Premium halal air-dried beef, built in Uppsala by three co-founders who got tired of settling. Halal at origin. Crafted and packed in Europe. Shipped from Uppsala.
YALLA™ is a premium halal air-dried beef brand, built in Uppsala and shipped across Europe from 2026.
Our beef is sourced from certified halal partners in Europe - slaughtered at origin, by Muslim hands, to zabihah standard. The craft - slow air-drying in the traditional European method - happens at our dedicated European production partner, a meat specialist that does this better than a first-year startup ever could.
We do the brand, the standard, and the final check from Uppsala. Every order ships from here.
Halal at origin. Crafted and packed in Europe. Shipped from Uppsala.
That's the pitch. It's not why we started.
How It Actually Started.
From Rafi & Farhan. Co-founders.
We met at the masjid in Uppsala in 2019. Both of us had come to Sweden for studies. Both of us stayed, built families, made it home.
Before YALLA, we were already trying to build something together - fresh halal meat, premium grade, sold properly to our community. The regulatory wall for fresh meat in Europe is high. We kept hitting it from every angle. Cold chain, shelf life, licensing - every path cost more than it returned.
Then one day a friend handed Farhan a bag of Bosnian dried beef - suho meso. Salt-cured, air-dried, old-world craft. Farhan brought it home. A week later he put it in front of Rafi.
First bite, something clicked. This was the snack we'd been waiting for our entire adult lives. Lean beef. Real spice. Something you could eat at the airport, after Maghrib, in a gym bag - without settling for permissible-but-sad. Premium and halal.
“I can eat this any time of the day.”
That was Rafi's first line out loud.
Ask a Muslim in Sweden what a good halal on-the-go snack is. The answer is almost always the same: chips, sweets, or a banana. Nothing protein-forward, halal, and actually good. Nothing.
So we made a small batch and passed it to friends in the Uppsala Muslim community. Then to their friends - brothers and sisters from the Asian and subcontinent community who'd never tried anything like this before. The reaction was the same every time. They finished the bag. They asked when they could buy more.
That's when Rafi said to Farhan: let's not keep this to ourselves. Let's build it for everyone.
That's how YALLA started.
In Uppsala. From a friend's gift, a regulatory dead-end, and a community of Muslims tired of the snack aisle's leftovers.
The standard our forefathers upheld. The one we carry forward.
- Rafi & Farhan / Co-founders, YALLA
The Third at the Table.
YALLA started with two. It became three the way it began: at the masjid.
Karwan came to Farhan with a different idea entirely - something he wanted to discuss, and he figured Farhan was the person to ask. The conversation started there. It did not end there.
Farhan showed him what we were building. The product. The standard. The principles. Halal as the standard, not the niche, and a brand built to serve the community before it serves itself. It landed. It met something Karwan already carried: his faith, and a long habit of showing up whenever the community needed hands.
He did not want to watch from the side. He wanted in on the bigger cause. Karwan came on as our third co-founder, and he leads sales: getting YALLA into the hands, the gyms, the grocers, and the homes it was built for.
Three co-founders. One vision. The same masjid that started it.
The Bigger Why.
For too long, "halal" on a European shelf has meant we cut a corner so it's allowed, please don't ask questions. Thin margins. Mystery meat. Cheap packaging. No paperwork. The Muslim consumer was expected to be grateful for scraps.
We reject that arrangement.
Halal isn't a workaround - it's the standard. The one our forefathers upheld. The one we carry forward. The one our certifying body verifies. The one that meets the kind of beef you'd actually serve at your own table. We're building YALLA so a new generation of Muslim consumers in Europe never again has to settle for permissible but sad.
This is bigger than air-dried beef. It's a template - for what Muslim-owned brands can be when they refuse to hide the faith, cut the quality, or water down the aesthetic. If we do this properly, we make the next one easier.
Halal is the standard. Not the niche.
How We Actually Work.
We run the business on five values. They aren't decorations - they're the filter every product choice, partner, and supplier passes through. If a shortcut fails one of them, it doesn't ship.
Niyyah.
intention -
Every decision starts with why are we really doing this? If the honest answer is "because it makes a quick buck," we don't do it.
Ihsaan.
excellence -
The texture of the pouch. The spices we pay full price for. The email answered by a human. Every detail on every bag. All of it gets the care the beef does. No corners.
Amanah.
trust -
Our supply chain, our partners, our team, our customers - all of it is a trust given to us. We treat it that way. That's why we know our halal slaughterhouse by name, know our craft partner by name, and frame the paperwork instead of hiding it in a PDF.
Ikhlas.
sincerity -
No invented scarcity. No deceptive pouch sizes. No "natural flavors" on the label. No pretending to be the butcher when we're the brand. What you read is what you get.
Barakah.
sustainable, blessed growth -
We'd rather build a long, useful company than a loud, short one. We protect prayer times. We respect Ramadan. We're happy to see other halal brands win - the standard rises when we all ship better product.
The Chain.
We're honest about how this gets made. Three stages. Three specialists. One bag. Full paperwork at every handoff.
Source.
origin, Europe
Cattle raised by certified European farmers our halal partner has worked with for years. Halal-slaughtered at origin - Muslim slaughterer, facing qibla, tasmiyah pronounced, approved zabihah method. Every animal, every time.
Craft.
European co-manufacturer
A specialist workshop in Europe takes the halal-certified beef and does what specialists do: air-dries it slow, the traditional way, with our spice blends and our halal line, and seals every pouch on site. No shortcuts, no sugar syrups, no "natural flavors." They've been doing this at this level longer than we've been a company. We picked them on purpose.
Check & Ship.
Uppsala, Sweden
Every finished bag arrives in Uppsala, where our team checks the batch against spec and packs your order by hand. Every order leaves from here. Our team sees every batch before you do.
We don't own the farm. We don't own the workshop. We do own the standard..
Uppsala.
Uppsala is home. We came here for studies. We stayed. We're raising our kids here.
It's where the team is. Where every order ships from. Where every bag passes our hands on the way to yours. A short train from Stockholm. A short walk from the masjid where we met. Good for logistics. Better for the community we're building for.
Long term, more of the chain moves closer to home. Short term, we partner with the best specialists in Europe - because doing it right beats doing it solo and wrong.
The Standard.
Certified halal at origin.
Certified by Halal Europe, a member of the World Halal Council. Zabihah method - Muslim slaughterer, facing qibla, tasmiyah pronounced. Email hello@yallajerky.com and we send you the certificate. We frame the paperwork.
Real beef. Real spices.
No fillers. No "natural flavors." No "animal fat (unspecified)." Every ingredient is something you could pick up at a spice shop.
22g protein per 40g bag.
Real macros from real beef. No paste, no powder.
Numbered.
The first drop is a countable run - not an infinite pile.
If it has YALLA on it, it's been earned..
What The Margin Pays For.
Margin is a tool, not a trophy.
A portion of every bag we sell funds community work - halal literacy for young Muslims, small grants for other Muslim-owned food brands trying to do it properly, and Ramadan programs. We'll publish what we funded and how much, every quarter. Not as a marketing beat. As a receipt.
The scoreboard we care most about isn't revenue. It's the hours of community work this beef paid for, the partners we kept in business, and the customers who came back because we didn't lie to them.
That's Barakah. That's what we're building toward.
Who This Is For.
Muslims 18-40 across Europe who don't compromise - on taste, on faith, on aesthetics. You want a halal snack you'd be proud to hand a mate at the gym, set on the table at iftar, or drop in a cousin's lap at the airport. We made this for you first.
If you lift heavy, eat well, and respect where your meat comes from - you're welcome too. Halal is how it's made. You just get better beef.
Halal is the standard. Not the niche.
What's Next.
Original, Spicy, Smokey BBQ, Carolina Reaper and Garlic, in 40g and 100g bags. Halal, honest, counted. The first 100 Founders Packs are gone, and batch two is in.
New flavours come when they are good enough, not before. The list hears first.
Put me first in line →Yalla. - The YALLA team