What Ziina does

Ziina is a Dubai-based fintech operating as Ziina Payment LLC under a UAE Central Bank licence, founded in 2021. It runs a mobile-first payments platform serving UAE consumers and small and medium-sized businesses with a peer-to-peer wallet, a merchant payment toolkit, and a paid lifestyle membership called Violet. Core infrastructure spans a PCI-DSS certified wallet, a hosted payment gateway with a public REST API (docs.ziina.com), Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android (softPOS), a Visa-powered digital card distributed through Apple Wallet, multi-currency payment links, ZiiBoard in-chat payments on Instagram and WhatsApp, and an Open Finance integration with Lean Technologies that executed the first live Open Finance payment in the UAE. The company was the first venture-backed startup to obtain a Stored Value Facility (SVF) license from the Central Bank of the UAE in August 2024.

Ziina's business model is primarily transaction-fee based: merchants pay 2.6% + 1 AED per transaction (with a 1.5% surcharge on international cards and a free first 1,000 AED for new sign-ups), with no subscription or hidden fees and free daily cash-out to a UAE bank account. Consumer monetisation combines a free Lite tier (zero FX fees on non-AED spend up to 3,000 AED/month) with a 100 AED/month or 996 AED/year Violet subscription that bundles zero FX fees up to 20,000 AED/month with the Ziina Violet Card and perks from partner brands such as SALT, Bateel, ClassPass, Ounass, Deliveroo, Yango, CAFU, Washmen, Letswork, and NordVPN.

Go-to-market is hybrid: self-serve mobile-app onboarding with Emirates ID verification for individuals and SMEs, sales-assisted demos for enterprise merchants, and channel partnerships with corporate-services providers (Virtuzone) and UAE free zones (Sharjah Media City/Shams, Dubai CommerCity). Distribution is concentrated in a single country (the UAE), with stated ambitions to expand financial access across the Middle East and North Africa. The company has raised approximately $30 million to date, including a $22 million Series A led by Altos Ventures in September 2024, and serves over 500,000 personal and business users and more than 10,000 UAE businesses.

Name

Ziina

Legal name

Ziina Payment LLC

Website

https://ziina.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Ziina is a UAE Central Bank-licensed fintech operating a mobile-first payments platform in Dubai, serving UAE consumers with a P2P wallet and Violet lifestyle subscription, and SMEs with a merchant payment toolkit, Tap to Pay, Visa-powered digital card, and Payment Gateway.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Payments

akta.pro primary industry

A2A Checkout & Merchant Acceptance Solutions (FSAMAFAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

BNPL Consumer Apps & Wallets (Discovery, Management) (FSAGAIAG), QR Code Payments Wallets (FSAMAEAC)

Keywords

• Digital payments platform
• Mobile payment app
• Merchant payment gateway
• Peer-to-peer payments
• Contactless card acceptance

Headquarters

HQ city

Dubai

HQ country

United Arab Emirates

HQ region

Middle East

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Transaction fees (Business): Charges 2.6% + 1 AED per business transaction, with a promotional waiver on the first 1,000 AED processed. Funds typically settle to a linked UAE bank account within 1–2 business days, with no Ziina transfer fee on cash out.
2. International card surcharge: Additional 1.5% surcharge applied on transactions made with international cards on multi-currency payment links.
3. Ziina Violet membership subscription: Paid consumer subscription tier priced at 100 AED/month or 996 AED/year, bundling zero currency fees, the Ziina Violet Card, partner-brand benefits (SALT, Bateel, ClassPass, Ounass, etc.), and priority support.
4. Ziina Lite (Freemium): Free tier offering 0% fees on non-AED spend up to 3,000 AED/month, Ziina Lite Card, and standard support, used to acquire and convert users to the paid Violet plan.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion5 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Ziina operates a UAE Central Bank-licensed digital payments platform that lets individuals send and receive money peer-to-peer via a mobile wallet and lets UAE businesses accept in-person and online card and wallet payments through Payment Links, ZiiBoard, a hosted Payment Gateway with API, Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, and the Ziina Card (a Visa-powered digital card in Apple Wallet). The platform is offered alongside the Ziina Violet paid membership, which adds zero foreign-currency fees and partner-brand lifestyle benefits.

Product overview

Ziina operates a single licensed payment platform (Ziina Payment LLC, licensed by the UAE Central Bank) that packages three customer-facing surfaces — Ziina Personal (P2P wallet), Ziina Business (merchant toolkit), and the paid Ziina Violet membership — around a common balance, Ziina Card (Visa-powered digital card in Apple Wallet), and a Payment Gateway / API. Within Business, modular add-ons (Payment Links, ZiiBoard for in-chat payments, Payment Gateway, Invoicing, Tap to Pay on iPhone/Android, Teams, CRM, Multi-currency Links, and ZiiLink shareable URLs) compose the merchant stack, while Violet layers zero-FX benefits and partner-brand perks on top of the same wallet.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ziina Violet: Lifestyle membership product offering zero currency fees, cashback, and partner brand benefits (SALT, Bateel El'an, ClassPass, Ounass, Deliveroo, Yango, CAFU, Washmen, Letswork, NordVPN, etc.).
• Ziina Card
• ZiiBoard
• ZiiLink

Products and services

• Ziina Personal Consumer-facing peer-to-peer payments product for UAE residents that lets users send and receive money by phone number, split bills, pay via QR or payment links, top up their wallet, and cash out to a UAE bank account. PCI-DSS certified.
• Ziina Business Merchant account product for UAE SMEs and entrepreneurs that bundles payment acceptance (in-person and online), invoicing, payment links, Tap to Pay, team management, customer data capture, and analytics into a single dashboard with free processing on the first 1,000 AED.
• Ziina Violet Membership Paid lifestyle subscription tier (100 AED/month or 996 AED/year) tied to the Ziina Card that eliminates foreign-currency fees up to 20,000 AED/month and unlocks monthly perks and cashback across 12 partner brands.
• Ziina Card Visa-powered digital card available in Apple Wallet that enables instant spending of received funds for both individuals and businesses and underpins the Violet membership's zero-FX benefit.
• Tap to Pay on iPhone Contactless softPOS feature letting merchants accept card and mobile-wallet payments on a compatible iPhone with no extra hardware, replacing a traditional POS terminal.
• Ziina Payment Gateway Hosted payment gateway with a developer API and pre-built connectors for Shopify, WooCommerce, and WordPress that supports Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
• Ziina Payment Links Shareable, branded URLs that let merchants accept card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay payments across any channel (social, chat, email) without needing a website, with multi-currency support for up to 10 currencies at a 1.5% surcharge for international cards.
• ZiiBoard In-chat payment module that lets merchants issue invoices and collect payments directly from messaging surfaces such as WhatsApp and Instagram, with social-commerce distribution built in.
• Ziina Enterprise Enterprise / high-volume tier of Ziina reached via direct sales, offering custom API and integration support for larger merchants and platforms requiring multi-user accounts and dedicated support.

Quantifiable outcome

• 500,000+ personal and business users on Ziina
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core / flagship, core platform integration, core, standard and core (bundle of lifestyle benefits).

• Sharjah Media City (Shams)core / flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2026Strategic partnership to provide digital payment solutions to SMEs and entrepreneurs within the Shams free zone, including an exclusive incentive of AED 10,000 in fee-free transactions to drive adoption. Aligned with the UAE's vision of a cashless economy.
• Virtuzonecore / flagshipChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 March 2026Partnership to integrate Ziina's payment gateway with Virtuzone's company-formation services, enabling Virtuzone's clients to access Ziina's instant payment solutions for online and in-person transactions and to improve cash flow.
• Lean Technologies (Open Finance)core / flagshipTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2026Integration with Lean to become the first UAE fintech to execute live Open Finance payments, enabling account-to-account payment flows and modern bank connectivity.
• Visacore / flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2025Co-developed the Ziina Card, a Visa-powered digital card available via Apple Wallet, enabling instant spending of received funds for both individuals and businesses. Launched October 2025 as Ziina's first digital card.
• Apple (Apple Wallet / Apple Pay)core platform integrationTechnology or Integration · 1 October 2025Ziina Card and Tap to Pay flows are integrated with Apple Wallet and Apple Pay on supported iOS devices, enabling tokenized card storage and contactless in-person payments.
• Dubai CommerCitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2025Partnership to provide innovative financial solutions for businesses in the Dubai CommerCity free zone, announced July 2025.
• Google (Google Pay / Android)core platform integrationTechnology or Integration · 1 April 2025Tap to Pay on Android and Google Pay acceptance are supported across the Ziina app, enabling contactless payments and digital wallet integration on supported Android devices.
• ShopifycoreTechnology or IntegrationCommerce integration enabling merchants to add Ziina's payment gateway to Shopify checkout for fast, secure online payments.
• WooCommercecoreTechnology or IntegrationCommerce integration enabling merchants to add Ziina's payment gateway to WooCommerce-powered online stores.
• WordPresscoreTechnology or IntegrationCommerce integration enabling merchants to add Ziina's payment gateway to WordPress sites.
• MastercardstandardTechnology or IntegrationMastercard is one of the card networks accepted by Ziina for business payments.
• American Express (Amex)standardTechnology or IntegrationAmex is one of the card networks accepted by Ziina for business payments.
• Violet brand partners (SALT, Bateel, ClassPass, Ounass, Bake My Day, Deliveroo, Yango, CAFU, Washmen, Letswork, NordVPN)core (bundle of lifestyle benefits)GTM or Marketing PartnerCo-marketing bundle offering monthly lifestyle benefits to Ziina Violet members (100 AED/month), including free coffees, cashback, free delivery, free fuel delivery, and other perks; drives engagement and retention for the paid subscription.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Tap Payments: Kuwait-headquartered payment gateway serving MENA merchants with online and in-person acquiring, payment links, and developer APIs. Closely comparable to Ziina's Payment Gateway, Tap to Pay, and SME acquiring product set.
• Mamo: UAE-based consumer and business payments app with a digital wallet, card, and bill-payment features, regulated by the DFSA. Highly comparable to Ziina on consumer wallet, card, and UAE-localized payment flows.
• PayBy: UAE-based digital payments platform offering QR, payment gateway, and wallet services for merchants and consumers. Directly overlaps with Ziina on QR acceptance, wallet, and SME acquiring.
• Telr: UAE-headquartered payment gateway serving MENA merchants with online checkout, payment links, and developer APIs. Closely matches Ziina Business's gateway and payment-link stack.
• YAP: UAE-based digital banking and payments app offering P2P, cards, and merchant features within a regulated framework. Closely comparable to Ziina Personal's wallet, card, and P2P offering.

Broad incumbents

• Network International: Largest MENA payments processor, offering acquiring, processing, and merchant services at scale. Operates across the same UAE merchant-acquiring market as Ziina but as a much larger incumbent with bank-grade infrastructure.
• Checkout.com: Global payment processor with significant MENA and UAE merchant presence, offering acquiring, gateway, and developer APIs. Overlaps with Ziina on online acquiring and gateway; broader geographic and enterprise footprint.
• Mashreq Neo: Digital arm of a major UAE bank providing consumer accounts, cards, and merchant acquiring. Comparable as a UAE consumer+merchant payment provider with bank-grade regulation and broader service portfolio.
• Stripe: Global online payment processor with growing UAE merchant base, developer-first APIs, and multi-currency support. Comparable to Ziina on Payment Gateway, API, and developer-led merchant acquisition, though operating at global scale.

Emerging players

• Tabby: UAE-founded BNPL and consumer payments fintech now expanding into broader financial services. Comparable as a UAE-born, well-funded consumer fintech building adjacent payment and credit products.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PL0hP1NRh8dASVzA_rjZKDOUEKnrIkuF99
• Xx.com/ZiinaMENA
• Facebookfacebook.com/Ziina-106780037720526
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ziina

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds9 records

Investors23 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ziina