Jenina Ibañez · · 1 min readUAE fintech app bags $9.4m in seed funding
Zenda, a fintech startup based in the United Arab Emirates, has raised US$9.4 million in seed funding from global investors STV, COTU Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and VentureSouq.
Zenda founders Raman Thiagarajan (left) and Haseeb Ahmed / Photo credit: Zenda
Used for the payment of school fees and bills, the Zenda app can help users track their dues and transact through pay-now and pay-later options.
Founded in June 2021 by former McKinsey & Company employees Raman Thiagarajan and Haseeb Ahmed, Zenda expanded to India in the third quarter of 2021. Its app had processed over US$100 million worth of transactions by the end of last year, while its user base has grown by 20x since the company’s launch.
Zenda plans to spend the fresh funding on product development and further market expansion in India.
The company aims to tap into US$70 billion in annual fee payments collected by Indian private schools, along with US$37 billion in the Gulf Cooperation Council and US$34 billion in the rest of the Middle East and Africa.
See also: Why Southeast Asia’s edtech sector is in a class of its own
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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