• UAE-based fintech Ziina has raised $22 million in a Series A funding round, led by US-based Altos Ventures, along with other investors including Fintech Collective, Avenir Growth, Activant Capital, Y Combinator, FJ Labs, MEVP, and Jabbar Internet Group.
• Founded in 2020 by Faisal Toukan and Sarah Toukan, Ziina helps individuals send and receive payments through its app with just a phone number—no IBAN or Swift Code required. It launched its digital wallet in February 2022.
• The new round will fuel Ziina’s expansion beyond a payments solution to providing end-to-end financial services for businesses and consumers, starting with the soon-to-launch ZiiCard. 

Press release:

Ziina, the UAE’s leading financial platform supporting consumers and businesses, today announced that it has raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by US-based Altos Ventures. Other top-tier investors participating in this round include Fintech Collective, Avenir Growth, Activant Capital, Y Combinator, FJ Labs, MEVP, and Jabbar Internet Group. This significant funding will fuel Ziina’s expansion beyond a payment solution to providing end-to-end financial services for businesses and consumers. 

Despite global fintech funding slowdown—dropping from $144.2 billion in 2021 to $40.7 billion in 2023—Ziina's successful funding round underscores its strong market position and investors' confidence in its trajectory. In the last 12 months alone, Ziina has received an influx of SMEs for its 360-degree payment solutions, marking a tenfold increase in annual revenue growth and a 34% month-on-month increase in customer growth. These achievements are significantly strengthened by Ziina’s recent acquisition of the Stored Value Facility (SVF) license from the Central Bank of the UAE, solidifying its position as a trusted financial partner in the region.

Ziina serves an underserved market of 560,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UAE. These SMEs, which make up over 94% of all companies and contribute about 60% of the country’s GDP, are increasingly adopting digital payment solutions. As of 2023, around 77% of SMEs in the UAE have integrated digital payments, driving a growing demand for advanced financial management tools. Despite this progress, approximately 50% of SMEs in the Middle East still face significant challenges in access to finance and cash flow management, according to a recent survey by PwC Middle East. Ziina’s solutions, including a payment gateway for website checkout and POS solutions, provide them with essential financial tools to enhance their operations and grow their businesses. 

The recent $22 million in Series A funding will accelerate Ziina's technological advancements and product innovations. This investment is key to Ziina's vision of transforming the financial services landscape in the Middle East, aiming to provide customers with a cutting-edge, secure, and user-friendly platform. Having observed businesses effectively use the platform to collect inbound payments from customers, Ziina is now focussing on perfecting outbound payments. The first step in this direction is allowing businesses to control their expenditures through the ZiiCard. Currently in development and soon to launch, the ZiiCard is designed to transform how both businesses and individual customers manage and access their funds, offering instant access to their digital wallet balances. For businesses, the ZiiCard will simplify supplier payments and enhance expense management. For individual users, new features like expense categorisation and the ability to split payments will greatly enhance both the security and convenience of their financial transactions.

Faisal Toukan, CEO and Co-Founder of Ziina, emphasised, "Ziina is positioned at the intersection of three key pillars: we see strong customer demand from the underserved SME sector, we’ve obtained the SVF license from the Central Bank of the UAE, and we have secured substantial funding from top-tier investors that we’re excited to be partnering with over the long term.  The intersection of these three pillars means that Ziina is uniquely positioned to lead the next evolution of fintech in the UAE and beyond. This funding will accelerate our journey from a payment platform to an end-to-end financial services provider, enhancing our offerings and expanding our reach across the Middle East.”

A crucial part of Ziina's success has been its ability to attract top-tier talent worldwide. The company boasts a workforce of leading technologists from companies such as Apple, Uber, Nubank, Klarna, Coinbase, Amazon, FundingCircle, and Yandex. With the recent funding, Ziina is adding additional hires from global tech giants and fintech innovators like Revolut and Nubank, who have played pivotal roles in scaling their companies to valuations of $45 billion and $70 billion, respectively. 

Dillon Krasnigor, Partner at Altos Ventures, said: "We're excited to partner with the Ziina team for the next phase of their growth. We're impressed with the company's ability to secure the SVF license from the UAE government, its consistent performance, and its ability to build an innovative product suite to meet its customers' needs. We believe Ziina will become a significant financial services provider in the Middle East. We commend the Central Bank of the UAE for embracing innovation within the fintech space by granting Ziina the SVF license.

As Ziina looks ahead, the combination of strategic funding, a growing customer base, and an unwavering commitment to innovation cements its role in shaping the future of finance in the Middle East. With future plans to enter new markets like Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Ziina is rapidly progressing toward becoming the region's premier financial platform, driving economic empowerment and fostering a cashless society.