Zeta enters strategic five-year partnership with Mastercard

Zeta, a provider of next-gen credit card processing to banks and fintechs, has raised US$30mn as a part of strategic investment from Mastercard and other investors, taking the company’s valuation to US$1.5bn.

This is a continuation of the US$240mn funding round that Zeta raised last May, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The round valued the company at US$1.45bn, marking its entry into India’s unicorn club. 

Mastercard’s investment in Zeta is a part of a strategic five-year partnership in which both companies will offer their credit management offerings and card-processing product stack. 

The two firms will go-to-market jointly to launch credit cards with issuers worldwide on Zeta’s modern, cloud-native, and fully API-ready credit processing stack. Mastercard has underscored the partnership by making a financial investment in Zeta.

Making payments invisible and seamless

Zeta helps issuers launch next-gen card programmes with its cloud-native and fully API-enabled stack that includes processing, issuing, lending, core banking, and mobile apps. 

“With Zeta’s next-gen credit card processing platform, we are fundamentally rewiring how issuers launch credit card programmes by offering new paradigms over legacy mainframe systems,” said Bhavin Turakhia, co-founder & CEO of Zeta.

“Amongst other benefits, our stack allows issuers to increase the lending book by composing contextual upsells using our extensive APIs and SDKs; reduce costs via pay-as-you-go SaaS billing; improve customer satisfaction by launching rich, self-serve experiences for card holders; and launch and iterate faster using our infinitely scalable cloud-native deployment. In Mastercard, we have a partner that is committed to undertake this journey with us and truly believes in this mission.”

Partnering to develop products and services 

The two companies’ collaboration began in 2018 in Asia Pacific when Zeta joined Start Path, Mastercard’s global startup engagement programme, and continues to gain momentum with Zeta recently joining the Mastercard Developers Partner Network, Engage. 

Through Engage, Zeta will gain access to the Mastercard network to pre-integrate or bundle products and services, including Mastercard’s Digital First and Fintech Express programmes. The programmes will look to provide instant customer KYC and verification, instant digital card issuance, provisioning, and usage.

“As people shop and bank online more than ever before, Mastercard is partnering with Zeta to provide issuing banks and fintech innovators with modern credit card processing capabilities at scale that will maximize the safety, security and convenience of e-commerce, online banking, and contactless transactions. By deploying Zeta’s credit processing stack, issuers will have an opportunity to grow their user base, drive higher usage and enter new geographical markets, all while accelerating the cashless revolution around the world,” said Sandeep Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Products & Innovation, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.