MasterCard, along with other investors, has invested $30 million in the $1.5 billion valuation banking technology unicorn Zeta. This round of funding is a follow-up to the company’s Series C funding round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank in May 2021.
Zeta and Mastercard have also announced a five-year global collaboration in addition to the strategic investment. As part of the deal, the companies will launch credit cards with issuers across the world using Zeta’s cloud-native, API-ready credit processing stack.
Bhavin Turakhia, co-founder and CEO of Zeta in a statement said, “With Zeta’s next-gen credit card processing platform, we are fundamentally rewiring how issuers launch credit card programs by offering new paradigms over legacy mainframe systems… In Mastercard, we have a partner that is committed to undertaking this journey with us and truly believes in this mission.”
The fresh infusion of capital will allow Zeta to transform its platform into a single-vendor system, which will help streamline company operations. This will also allow issuers to build versatile and highly customizable card products relatively faster. The partnership would also allow Zeta to use Mastercard’s fraud protection technologies and loyalty programs on its platform.
The partnership between the two companies commenced in the Asia Pacific in 2018 when Zeta joined Start Path, Mastercard’s global start-up engagement initiative, and has continued to gain traction, with Zeta subsequently joining the Mastercard Developers Partner Network, Engage. Zeta will have access to the Mastercard network via Engage in order to pre-integrate or integrate products and services, such as Mastercard’s Digital First and Fintech Express programs. The initiatives will strive to offer instant customer KYC and verification, as well as instant digital card issuance, provisioning, and usage.
Zeta, founded in 2015 by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati, provides a cloud-native neo-banking solution for credit, debit, as well as prepaid product issuance. It also offers digitized solutions to businesses including automated cafeteria billing among other services. The Bengaluru-based firm serves major fintech companies and banks such as Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Induslnd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Yes Bank.
Zeta employs over 1,300 employees across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Asia. According to the startup, it has facilitated eight issuers and 30 fintech firms. It also claims to have issued over 10 million cards in total. Zeta bagged $250 million in a Series C round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in May of last year. The capital round pushed the startup into the elite unicorn club.