Fintech unicorn, Zeta, has raised $30 Mn in a fresh round of strategic funding from payments giant, MasterCard, and a clutch of other investors, taking the company’s valuation to $1.5 billion. This is a continuation of the $240 million funding round that Zeta raised last May, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The round valued the company at $1.45 billion, marking its entry into India’s unicorn club.
The fresh round of funding will enable Zeta to evolve its platform into a single-vendor system that will help streamline its operations. This will also allow issuers to launch flexible and highly customizable card programs faster. The deal will also enable Zeta to leverage Mastercard’s fraud prevention tools and loyalty solutions for its platform.
Mastercard’s investment in Zeta is a part of a strategic five-year partnership in which both Zeta and Mastercard look to issue 30-40 million debit and credit cards and process $60 billion in total payment value through their banking and payment products. Through its white-label platform Tachyon, Zeta will also provide additional capabilities to bank partnerships of Mastercard.
Tachyon allows banks to roll out credit products, issue personal loans, offer buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), and upsell credit and reduce fraud.
Also, Read This: Fintech Startup Snapmint Bags USD 9 Mn In Its Series-A Funding Round Led by Prashasta Seth
Founded in 2015 by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati, Zeta offers cloud-native neo-banking platform for the issuance of credit, debit and prepaid products. It also provides digitized solutions to enterprises such as automated cafeteria billing and more.
“The core objective of the partnership with Mastercard is to jointly promote both brands in new geographies, leverage sale leads and add more value to cardholders by helping banks customise offerings. The partnership with Mastercard also helps us open doors in new geographies and ensure rapid integration while reducing our time to market,” Bhavin Turakhia, cofounder and chief executive officer of Zeta, told ET.
At present, Zeta continues to be focussed on India, the US and Southeast Asia. It will look to launch its solutions in Brazil and the UK by the first half of 2023, Turakhia added.
As a part of the partnership, Zeta has already started collaborating with Mastercard for innovation across the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and APAC. It is now looking to add another 20-30 global banks as clientele on its platform in the coming years.
Also, Read This: SaaS-focused Fintech Startup Xoxoday Bags USD 30 Mn From Giift and Apis Partners
