Fintech firm Zeta's valuation touches $300 mn in Sodexo-led funding round

It will use the funding to expand its business in the US, UK, Europe and Southeast Asia.

Business Standard : Fintech company Zeta said that its valuation reached $300 million after securing a series C investment from France-based Sodexo Benefits and Rewards (BRS) for a strategic minority stake. The company declined to reveal the size of the funding. The Bengaluru-based firm will use the funding to expand its business in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015, Zeta provides a full-stack cloud-native neo-banking platform for issuance of credit, debit and prepaid products. These enable legacy banks and new-age fintech institutions to launch retail and corporate fintech products. It also provides an enterprise solution for corporates such as 'automated cafeteria' and employee gifting.

"Today's banking and fintech ecosystem require cloud-native, privacy-aware, inherently secure, API (application program interface) first banking and payment solutions," said Turakhia, co-founder and chief executive of Zeta. "With this new investment, we want to further our vision to accelerate to a world where payments are invisible and seamless. We will be expanding our operations to over 15 countries in the next two years," said Turakhia.

Over 14,000 corporate clients and more than 1.9 million users use Zeta's employee benefits and corporate gifting platform. It has built partnerships with organisations such as RBL Bank, IDFC First Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

"This investment will enable the Sodexo group to benefit from Zeta's seamless payment experience and offer a comprehensive suite of solutions to our consumers," said Aurelien Sonet, CEO, Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services. "Zeta and Sodexo are already working together on deploying Zeta's platform across several Sodexo subsidiaries across different regions," he added.

Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Zeta in the entire investment process. Zeta said it has been creating a robust platform over the past five years to solve use cases that could not be addressed through legacy approaches. "The platform enables creation of tailor-made consumer experiences and scales to billions of transactions per day," said Gaddipati, co-founder and chief technology officer of Zeta. "This investment will also allow us to enhance our capabilities in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics so that we can offer better services with more actionable information to our clients and users," said Gaddipati.