Zeal Raises $10M to Expand Payment-Terminal Network

BREAKING NEWSSeptember 14, 2026 at 1:40 PM UTC

TLDR

Zeal, an Egypt-founded payments company, raises $10 million for software expansion to cover over 4 million card machines in multiple markets, bringing total funding to $14 million.
Founded in 2019 by Omar Ebeid and Belal Mohamed, Zeal's software connects payment terminals with loyalty programs, enabling retailers to identify customers, award points, capture data, and integrate without changing hardware.
Zeal's utilization of partnerships with payment acquirers and companies in the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Latin America supports the distribution of its technology, aiming to enhance integrations, expand terminal networks, and introduce analytics for merchants and payment providers.

Egypt-founded payments company Zeal has raised $10 million to expand its software across payment terminals in several markets, taking total funding to $14 million. The company did not disclose investors in the round. Zeal plans to use the money to activate contracts covering more than 4 million card machines over the next 24 months.

Founded in 2019 by Omar Ebeid and Belal Mohamed, Zeal builds software that connects payment terminals with loyalty programs and customer data. Its technology allows retailers to identify customers at checkout, award points or stamps, capture phone numbers and connect existing loyalty systems without replacing payment hardware.

Zeal distributes its software through payment acquirers and other payments companies rather than selling terminal-by-terminal to retailers. The company has partnerships across the UK and Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. The new funding will be used to add terminals, deepen integrations and develop analytics for merchants and payment providers.

The company also provides tools that track changes in transaction volumes, terminal activity, payment declines and inactive merchants. Zeal says this gives payment providers more information about businesses using their networks while giving retailers data on customer activity that has been common in online commerce but harder to collect in physical stores.

Zeal raised $4 million in 2024 in a round led by Raed Ventures and Cur8 Capital, with other investors. Its earlier backers also include Pinnacle Capital. The latest financing shifts the company’s focus toward execution as it seeks to turn signed agreements covering millions of terminals into active deployments across several payment systems and countries.

Key Takeaways

Zeal’s opportunity comes from using infrastructure that merchants already have rather than asking them to install another device. Card terminals process large volumes of purchases but often provide retailers with little information about who is buying or whether that customer returns. Zeal is trying to connect that transaction with loyalty and customer identification at the point of payment. Its distribution model is also important. By working with payment acquirers, Zeal can reach thousands of merchants through one integration instead of selling to each retailer. That explains how the company has built a pipeline covering more than 4 million terminals despite raising only $14 million to date. The main challenge is converting that pipeline into active terminals. Payment systems differ by hardware, operating system, acquirer and country, which means each rollout requires integration work and support. The next 24 months will therefore show whether Zeal can turn contracts into recurring revenue at scale. If it succeeds, the company could occupy a layer between payment processing and merchant software, allowing acquirers to offer services beyond accepting payments while giving physical retailers some of the customer data tools already used by online businesses.

Venture Capital