Egyptian fintech company Zeal announced that it had raised $10 million in a new funding round, whose participating investors were not disclosed, bringing its total funding to $14 million. The company plans to use the capital to expand its international operations and activate signed contracts with payment acquirers covering more than four million payment devices over the next 24 months.
Zeal was founded in 2019 by Omar Ebeid and Belal Mohamed, and develops software that integrates with existing payment devices. Its technology enables stores to identify and reward customers when they complete a purchase, and converts in-store transactions into data that can be used in loyalty programs and to understand business performance.
Expanding the Infrastructure Connected to Payment Devices
The company currently works with partners in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, and has built a commercial pipeline comprising four million payment devices worldwide. According to the company, the new round will support the expansion of integrations across different payment environments, alongside the rollout of tools aimed at merchants and payment service providers to gain a deeper understanding of store performance.
Zeal’s options include enabling a store to set up points or stamp programs, adding optional phone-number collection, or connecting an existing loyalty engine. The platform also includes the Merchant Health tool, which tracks changes in transaction volume, payment-device activity, payment declines, and periods of business inactivity, helping payment-provider teams identify accounts requiring follow-up.
Why Does This Funding Matter?
The importance of the deal lies in the fact that it does not finance the addition of a simple function to a payment device, but rather seeks to distribute a software layer across an existing and only partially standardized payments infrastructure. Connecting payment devices to loyalty systems and customer data requires dealing with differences among manufacturers, operating systems, payment applications, and acquiring platforms.
This model gives Zeal an access channel through acquirers and payment partners instead of relying on direct sales to each store. However, it makes execution dependent on the company’s and its partners’ ability to activate the signed contracts in practice; agreements covering four million devices represent a planned expansion scope, not evidence that deployment has been completed.
Previous Funding and Activation Plan
Zeal had raised $4 million in 2024 in a round led by Raed Ventures and Cur8 Capital, with participation from strategic angel investors. Its previous backers also include Pinnacle Capital, while Raed Ventures’ Raed III fund includes investors such as Saudi Venture Capital (SVC).
Omar Ebeid, co-founder and chief executive officer, said that the funding would support the next activation phase for the contracted scope over 24 months. Zeal also received the Team of the Year award at the UK FinTech Awards 2026, while Belal Mohamed, co-founder and chief technology officer, received the Innovator of the Year award. The company also participates in the Scale Up by Endeavor program.