UAE-based fintech Ziina eyes Jordan in regional push

Ziina, the UAE-based, YC-backed startup is looking at expanding its presence into Jordan.

Having launched its digital wallet in February this year, and its proprietary payment keyboard, the Ziiboard, the Jordanian expansion is the latest milestone for the fintech company.

Faisal Toukan, CEO and co-founder of Ziina said, “The median age in Jordan is around 23 years old, which makes most of the population digitally native. The Central Bank of Jordan has recognised this, naming microfinance, digital financial services, and small and medium-sized enterprise finance among its core sectoral pillars. As a proud Jordanian, I am delighted to introduce Ziina to my home country. Our team have worked tirelessly to develop a product that makes the payment process infinitely faster and more convenient, while also prioritising a delightful user experience.”

Ziina is one of the few MENA companies to make it to the Y-Combinator. The company successfully raised $9m during a seed round from prominent investors, including Avenir Growth, Goodwater Capital, ANIM, Oman Technology Fund, Class 5 Global, Long Journey Ventures, Graph Ventures, Jabbar Internet Group, Wamda, and FJ Labs, as well as employees and executives at PayPal, Instagram, Stripe, Revolut, Venmo, Brex, Checkout.com, Notion, Block, Airbnb and Deel.

Heralding a new age of digital consumer finance requires a strong team. The Jordanian siblings along with their Californian cofounder Andrew Gold have recruited an experienced team from the likes of Apple, Uber, Coinbase, Careem, Yandex, Funding Circle, Bain & Co, Talabat and Oracle.

Meanwhile, a standout feature of Ziina’s product is its design. The interface allows users to easily send and receive payments to anyone in just a few taps. Ziina eliminates the need for tedious IBAN and swift code entry and makes the payment experience seamless and social, with GIFs, photos, text and emojis.

The company is focused on developing state-of-the-art tools to empower individuals gain more control of their financial future.

Read: An overview of the Middle East fintech landscape