Zenda
“Can a vertically-focused edtech payments company become the financial operating system for schools and families across MENA and emerging markets by embedding BNPL and financial services into fee collection?”
Founded2021
HQDubai, UAE
FoundersRaman Thiagarajan, Haseeb Ahmed
Total raised$9.4M
Latest roundSeed, April 2022
IndustryVertical SaaS / Education
The story
Founded in June 2021 as nexopay in the UAE by two ex-McKinsey consultants, the company rebranded to zenda in 2022 after raising a $9.4M seed round. The core product evolved from a simple school fee payment app into a full education payments platform with embedded BNPL/tuition financing for parents, and financial operations tooling for schools. The company has pursued geographic expansion across UAE, India, and Egypt, positioning itself as a fintech partner embedded within the education vertical rather than a generic payments processor.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2021
Founded in June 2021 as nexopay by ex-McKinsey duo Raman Thiagarajan and Haseeb Ahmed; launched in UAE and India enabling parents to pay school fees via app.· pivot
2021
Crossed $100M in annual contracted total payment volume (TPV) in India and abroad by Q4 2021.· banking
2022
Raised $9.4M seed round led by STV; rebranded from nexopay to zenda.· acquisition
2022
Announced expansion into Egypt as third market, targeting Africa as next growth frontier.· pivot
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Zenda’s embedded-finance stack
Banking / BaaS
Coastal Community Bank
Lending
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
3 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.