Zeta/ Ramki Gaddipati and Bhavin Turakhia
News Digital Banking
SoftBank invests $250m in new fintech unicorn Zeta
The Vision Fund has made its latest fintech play with a $250m stake in retail banking tech provider Zeta.
Europe has a new fintech unicorn. Zeta, a London-based, banking tech startup has secured $250m (£177m) in Series C funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing the company at $1.45bn (£1bn).
This is SoftBank’s first investment in the technology banking space and the single largest investment in a banking tech startup globally.
Zeta says it is the “only modern end-to-end Omni Stack software solution to enable large- to mid-sized legacy banks and new-age financial institutions to launch modern retail banking and corporate fintech products.”
“Most banks are using decades-old software built at a time when Mainframes and Cobol were in vogue. They have been slow to innovate and provide poor user experiences. With Zeta, banks can leverage a modern, cloud-native platform and improve speed to market, agility, cost to income ratio and user experience, ” said Bhavin Turakhia, CEO, Zeta. “We are privileged to have SoftBank join us in this exciting journey as we together disrupt the stagnant landscape of banking tech,” Bhavin added.
The funding will be used to accelerate Zeta’s growth in the United States and Europe as it scales its operations, team, and platform.
Zeta was founded by Bhavin Turakhia along with Ramki Gaddipati in the UK but also has operations in North America, LATAM, Europe and Asia.
It offers credit, debit and prepaid processing with card controls and personal finance management, a Buy-Now-Pay-Later and personal loan management platform, checking accounts, savings accounts and deposits as well as a white labelled, customisable mobile app. The firm says it is working with over 10 Banks and 25 Fintechs, across eight countries, including Sodexo who also participated as an additional minority investor in the round.
