Zeta, UAE banking tech startup, achieves unicorn status with new $250m investment

Zeta, UAE banking tech startup, achieves unicorn status with new $250m investment 

"Nobody thought of building the bank stack from the ground up. Until now.”

Zeta, a Dubai-based banking tech startup, announced today that it has secured $250 million in investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. This Series C investment values Zeta at $1.45 billion, and is one of the largest single investments in a banking tech startup globally.

Co-founded by serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia (a Dubai resident since 2012) and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015, Zeta is a banking tech company providing an Omni Stack comprising modern credit and debit processing, BNPL, core banking, and mobile experiences. Zeta provides its products to banks and fintechs globally, and currently has over 750 employees across its offices in the US, UK, Middle East, and Asia. Back in H2 2019, the startup was valued at $300 million

zeta banking tech startup journey

The journey of Zeta. Image: Zeta

Zeta's goal is to revolutionize the banking sector, which it believes is antiquated, where individual banks have to work with dozens of tech vendors - most offering discrete pieces of functionality and archaic stacks that are older than the internet. Zeta’s Omni Stack seeks to provide all the functionality that banks need to launch new products relevant to consumers today.

“Most banks are using decades-old software built when Mainframes and Cobol were in vogue. They have been slow to innovate and provide poor user experiences. With Zeta, FIs can leverage a modern, cloud-native platform and improve speed to market, agility, cost to income ratio and user experience” said Bhavin Turakhia, CEO & Co-founder, Zeta."Nobody thought of building the bank stack from the ground up. Until now.”

Zeta’s Omni Stack comprises:

  • Zeta Tachyon Credit, Debit and Prepaid processing with card controls and personal finance management capabilities
  • Zeta Tachyon Loans – a modern Buy-Now-Pay-Later and personal loan management platform
  • Zeta Tachyon Deposits – a modern core for DDA, checking accounts, savings accounts and deposits
  • and Zeta Tachyon Mobile – a ready-made, white-labeled, customizable mobile app for credit cards, checking accounts, prepaid, loans, Buy-Now-Pay-Later, personal finance management and more

Zeta counts amongst its customers, over 10 Banks and 25 Fintechs, across 8 countries, including Sodexo - a leading Issuer of Employee Benefits & Rewards with over 30 million global users and HDFC Bank - the 14th largest bank by market cap in the world and others.

Sodexo participated as an additional minority investor in the round. The proceeds of this funding round will be used to accelerate Zeta’s growth in the Middle East, United States and Europe including scaling its operations, team, and platform to meet the demands of its expanding customer base.

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