Zeta is on the way to become the new unicorn club member. The startup is in the final phase of discussion to raise the new funds from SoftBank. If Zeta becomes successful in completing the latest financial round, its market cap will jump to $1 billion and it will join the unicorn club.
Details about Current Funding Round
As per the TechCrunch report, Zeta is ready to finalize the Series D funding of approximately $250 million. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 is showing keen interest in leading this financial round. The current round will take the startup to the much-awaited market cap of $1 billion.
Zeta, a Banking tech startup, was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia in 2016. The firm had a single Series C external funding round in 2019. This round helped the company to reach a valuation of $300 million.
When asked about the latest investment in Zeta, SoftBank did not reveal any information. SoftBank Spokesperson said that the firm can’t comment based on the speculation in the market. A person who has complete knowledge of the current funding round said that the round is not yet closed.
If the current deal is executed, Zeta will be the seventh Indian startup to join the prestigious unicorn club. Last week was very productive for the Indian Startup Ecosystem. Six firms joined the unicorn club that week. It includes social commerce Meesho, credit card management startup CRED, online pharmacy services provider PharmEasy, online investment platform Groww, business messaging app Gupshup and social networking startup ShareChat.
Zeta’s Key Operations
Zeta provides the necessary services to the banks for launching the latest fintech products for their clients. Most of the banks don’t have their own technical teams to build technology-oriented products to satisfy the need of the customers. Zeta helps in filling this gap with its products and services. The startup design the required infrastructure and present it to the banks as per their requirements.
Zeta has designed its cloud-based API-first banking stack as its core framework. The startup provides two choices to the banks. First, they can use Zeta’s built-in framework for their customers. Second, the startup can provide additional customised services over the top of its cloud infrastructure to all customers. It will help banks in improving mobile apps. It will also provide extra functionalities to handle debit and credit cards. Zeta also offers payment gateways service to its clients.
The fintech startup has high ticket clients from Asia and Latin American markets. The banks are quite satisfied with the technological solution provided by Zeta.
Turakhiya, the co-founder of Zeta, founded his first startup in 1998 with his brother Divyank. Together, they sold four tech startups to Endurance for $160 million. Zeta is the third firm co-founded by Bhavin. Flock and Radix are the two other startups initiated by Bhavin. These two startups used to provide messaging services to their customers.