Banking tech startup Zeta has become the latest startup to join India’s ever growing unicorn list. The Bengaluru based startup announced on Monday that it has raised $250 Mn from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The funding propelled the startup’s valuation to nearly $1.25 Bn, making it the 14th unicorn of 2021.
Barely few days back, B2B e-commerce major Moglix had become 13th unicorn of this year. In the COVID ravaged year, India has seen influx of unicorns. International investors, mainly Tiger Global, has played a big role in creating army of unicorn this year.
This is Zeta’s first ever investment from an institutional investor. The company has pointed that it will issues series C shares to SoftBank and touted the current round as series C.
The nearly six year old startup is seeking to disrupt one of banking sector’s legacy problem, its outdated and antique technology. The startup basically helps banks in seamlessly launching modern fintech products in credit card, debit card prepaid product space. It leverages modern cloud native platform for rolling out these fintech products.
According to reports, Zeta is currently working with several leading banks. This includes HDFC, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, RBL Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank among other banks.
“Banking software is a $300 Bn industry globally. Most banks still employ technology that is significantly older than their customers, impacting user-experience and engagement,” Munish Verma, Managing Partner of SoftBank Investment Advisers, said in a statement.
The Bengaluru based startup claims that it currently serves more than 14K corporate customers.
Zeta is not the only competitor in this space. One of its prominent competitor is Y Combinator backed startup Decentro. Decentro had raised undisclosed amount of funding as part of its seed funding round earlier this year. The company also recently joined hands with ICICI Bank.
Techpluto recently caught up with Decentro’s CEO Rohit Taneja to conduct an exclusive interview. In this interview, Taneja spoke about bank’s outdated technology and the need to overhaul this. To read the complete excerpt of this interview, please click here.
