Zeta is a tech company that provides software solutions for banks and fintech startups. Recently, they successfully secured a $50 million investment from Optum, an American healthcare company. This new funding has boosted Zeta’s overall worth to $2 billion, which is a significant jump from its previous value of $1.15 billion back in 2021. At that time, Zeta had raised $250 million in funding led by a major investor, SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Founded in 2015 by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati, Zeta specializes in helping banks and financial institutions utilize modern technology and cloud systems to create and manage financial products like credit cards, checking accounts, and loans. Turakhia highlighted a huge issue in the banking industry: a lot of banks still rely on old computer systems, many of which were developed many years ago. He likens this situation to the earlier transition many businesses made from running their own servers to using cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure for their data storage and processing needs.
Turakhia believes banking technology is going through a similar transformation, but he acknowledges that it’s more complicated because it involves updating critical systems that manage important tasks like processing payments and keeping track of customer accounts.
Zeta has made significant strides since its founding and is currently serving 25 million customer accounts through its platform, with plans to expand that to 50 million. One of its biggest clients in India is HDFC Bank, the country’s leading private bank, which has used Zeta’s technology to improve its digital payment platform called PayZapp. In addition to HDFC Bank, Zeta collaborates with international partners such as Pluxee, which offers corporate benefits globally, and Sparrow Financial, a credit card company based in the U.S.
The United States is Zeta’s largest market, followed closely by India, where the company generates over $50 million in yearly revenue. While Zeta is in discussions with several large banks in the U.S. for future partnerships, the company’s leaders have pointed out that these agreements can sometimes take a long time to finalize.
Since it began, Zeta has invested about $400 million into developing its software platform. The company aims to become profitable by March 2026, and its products include essential services such as banking operations, payment processing, fraud detection, and tools for engaging customers.
Turakhia has ambitious goals for Zeta, aiming to capture 25% of the market share in the banking technology industry within the next decade. He notes that this has never been done before since most of the market has already been claimed over many years, mainly through company mergers and acquisitions.
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Before founding Zeta, Turakhia launched his first business with his brother in 1998 and has since sold four internet companies for a total of $160 million. Zeta is the third startup he has launched since then. Just a couple of years ago, in August 2021, another one of his startups, Titan, which provides business email services, received backing from Automattic, the parent company of WordPress. Titan was valued at $300 million at that time.
Zeta currently has about 1,700 employees working in various locations across the United States, the Middle East, and Asia. Turakhia mentioned that while they didn’t necessarily need this recent investment, he views the $50 million funding as a strong endorsement of Zeta’s journey and future potential. He remarked that there’s a good chance that the money will simply remain in the bank for now, as they continue to focus on growing their business.
