FUNDING | Egyptian Fintech, Zeal, Secures $4 Million to Scale Services in MENA Region

Zeal, an Egyptian fintech and customer loyalty app, has successfully concluded a funding round securing $4 million to support its expansion efforts into the broader MENA market.


Established in 2019 by Omar Ebeid, Zeal focuses on providing payment solutions to enhance in-store customer engagement and brand loyalty for retailers and offline businesses. The startup’s SmartPOS Plugin technology allows credit card machines to identify, segment, and retarget in-store customers.

Following its recent expansion to the UK, Zeal now aims to increase its presence in MENA, a region that continues to draw VC interest with 74% year-on-year growth in startup funding in 2023.

The $4 million seed round, led by Raed Ventures and Cur8 Capital, along with contributions from strategic angel investors, will facilitate this expansion.

According to the startup, the funding will be instrumental in:

• Expanding Zeal’s portfolio of payment acquirers and streamlining integration with POS terminals globally.
• Additionally, Zeal plans to develop advanced data and analytics solutions tailored for the FMCG and telecom sectors.

“This investment will accelerate our journey towards utilizing AI to revolutionize retail customer engagement on a global scale. We are committed to broadening our impact, with a focus on connecting billions of customers with millions of retailers,” said Omar Ebeid.

Wael Nafee from Raed Ventures expressed excitement about supporting Zeal emphasizing the startup’s role as a valuable disruptor in the global payment-acquiring space. Nafee believes that Zeal’s comprehensive product is an innovative solution for payment service providers and POS manufacturers worldwide.

“We’re very excited to back Omar and the team at Zeal with an Egypt & MENA-based team building a global first product offering. The global payment acquiring space is hungering for value-added service disruptors that can propel the next phase of innovation. We believe that Zeal’s holistic product is a key innovative solution to payment service providers and POS manufacturers globally.”