June 2021, GinaHaving simply accomplished YC’s first cohort that yr and secured $7.5 million in seed funding, the corporate launched a fintech app for 20,000 retail prospects, enabling them to ship and obtain cash.
Three years later, the Dubai-based startup has expanded its companies to satisfy the wants of micro, small and medium-sized companies within the UAE and now has 50,000 retail and company prospects, and raised $22 million in Sequence A funding led by Altos Ventures.
Certainly, the truth that such a big follow-on funding got here regardless of a world fundraising slowdown underscores investor confidence within the fintech’s development: the corporate claims to have seen a 34% month-on-month improve in buyer numbers final yr and a 10x improve in income over the identical interval.
Co-Founder and CEO Faisal Touqan Ziina instructed TechCrunch that three components make it significantly engaging to traders: the UAE’s quickly increasing small and medium-sized enterprise phase, its deal with product-led development, and its just lately acquired central financial institution license.
Enlargement of the SME phase
Ziina started as a peer-to-peer (P2P) funds app for splitting prices for group journeys, hire, and so forth. Toucan stated the app turned in style amongst retail prospects within the UAE, however some enterprise house owners additionally needed to make use of the digital pockets to ship and obtain funds.
In response to this, Ziina organically expanded its platform into two segments: Ziina Private for splitting payments amongst mates, and Ziina Enterprise for accumulating funds. The primary enterprise characteristic allowed customers to ship cost hyperlinks and obtain funds via Apple Pay, Google Pay, MasterCard, and Visa.
As demand from companies elevated, Ziina developed extra merchandise for them: cost gateways (checkout) built-in with platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify for on-line funds, POS (level of sale) options for in-person funds utilizing QR codes, funds by way of social media, and so forth. Along with these options, Ziina added CRM performance, permitting companies to trace buyer particulars and interactions.
The YC-backed startup continues to supply P2P companies, but it surely’s clear why its product is now targeted on SMEs. The startup targets an underserved market of 560,000 SMEs within the UAE, which account for greater than 94% of all companies and roughly 60% of the nation’s GDP. As of 2023, roughly 77% of SMEs within the UAE have adopted digital funds, growing the demand for monetary administration instruments.
“We’re an all-in-one platform for companies to receives a commission within the UAE. We have advanced from a purely shopper app to an ecosystem that brings customers and companies collectively on one platform for funds,” Tucan defined on the convention name. “We’re wanting on the widespread expertise of customers paying companies and companies paying customers and constructing a community impact throughout these two buyer segments. And that is one of many key differentiators in our product technique and in our enterprise – so principally every part must be below one ecosystem and folks ought to have a companion that they will belief with their funds.”
Product-led development
From a product perspective, Ziina says it addresses three key ache factors for SMEs within the funds area: accessibility, price transparency and person expertise.
On the subject of accessibility, fintechs enable small companies to open an account and arrange a cost processor in minutes as an alternative of weeks.
When it comes to price, Ziina says it affords clear pricing with no hidden charges: 2.6% plus 1 AED (roughly $0.25 USD) per cost hyperlink and POS transaction, and a pair of.9% plus 1 AED per cost gateway transaction.
Lastly, prospects are supplied with a dashboard to trace and reconcile on-line and offline funds and cost hyperlinks.
Ziina has grown quickly over the past yr and now serves 50,000 energetic customers, together with each retail and company shoppers throughout trend, gaming, and journey and tourism. Toukan instructed TechCrunch that the startup at present processes about 1,050 dirhams ($280) each 60 seconds, and that it expects annual transaction quantity to develop to 1.1 billion dirhams (about $300 million) from 550 million dirhams (about $150 million) final yr.
Ziina’s development has come primarily from a product-led initiative with out a devoted gross sales staff: its CEO says 55% of its prospects are acquired organically, with the remainder coming from B2B referrals.
However that is more likely to change because it continues to scale and supply extra monetary companies on the again of its newly acquired banking license. The corporate is hiring its first gross sales employees, together with some from Revolut.
Ziina claims to be the primary venture-backed startup to obtain a Saved Worth Facility (SVF) license from the UAE Central Financial institution, which is able to allow the fintech to supply extra monetary options aside from lending, which requires a separate license, and earn income from float, for instance, if prospects retailer belongings on the platform.
Toukan believes that the license and its monetary ecosystem providing (the fintech will quickly transfer into expense administration with the launch of its card product, ZiiCard) give Ziina an edge over different native fintechs that supply overlapping monetary companies: Paymob, for instance, affords point-of-sale terminals, Tabby is increasing its monetary companies past pay later, Telda affords P2P funds and Mamo is within the expense administration enterprise.
Regardless of this competitors, CEOs who based fintech firms Sarah Toucan and Andrew Goldbelieves that with the patron and enterprise funds sector throughout the MENA area rising quickly, there may be important market potential for Ziina.
“The Center East appears to be rising fairly strongly, particularly by way of GDP development, and the UAE is without doubt one of the pioneers,” the CEO stated. “If we at Ziina do our job proper, we should always attain 200,000 month-to-month energetic companies on the platform in 4 years, given the rise of SMEs within the UAE. In case you have a look at gamers like Nubank in Brazil, they’ve achieved their goal of 10-20% market penetration. So we intend to try this and change into the Nubank of the area.”
The Sequence A spherical additionally noticed participation from Activant Capital, Avenir Development, Fintech Collective, FJ Labs, Jabbar Web Group, Center East Enterprise Companions and Y Combinator, bringing the whole funding Ziina has raised since its founding in 2020 to over $30 million.
