Zeal
London-headquartered, Egyptian-founded payments company that adds loyalty and merchant-health tools to existing card terminals through acquirers. It announced a USD 10 million round in September 2026.
Industry: Payments loyalty and merchant intelligence software | Location: London, United Kingdom | Founded: 2019 | Total Funding: USD 14M
About Zeal
Zeal is an Egyptian-founded payments company headquartered in London. It was started in 2019 by Omar Ebeid, founder and chief executive, and Belal Mohamed, co-founder and chief technology officer; some sources also name Amr Mohamed as a third founder. The first product was a loyalty-and-payments app in Cairo, and the company was early on supported by the SETsquared incubator in the United Kingdom. It now sells middleware to the businesses that already own payment infrastructure: acquirers, processors and terminal estates. Some coverage still describes it as Egypt-based, and Cairo remains an engineering and operations base while the commercial effort is run from London toward acquirers. Zeal's software runs on card machines merchants already have, and the company describes it as a SmartPOS plugin rather than a new terminal. A shop can use it to stamp loyalty cards, award points, capture a phone number or connect an existing rewards engine at the moment of payment. A second layer, Merchant Health, gives acquirers, independent sales organisations and merchants a view of transaction volumes, terminal activity, declined payments and trading inactivity, so problems such as sales swings, inactive terminals and failed charges can be caught before a merchant account deteriorates. Zeal sells through acquirers rather than directly to merchants, and partners are described across the UK and Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Zeal reported a six-figure seed round in December 2020. In January 2024 it raised USD 4 million, led by Saudi Arabia's Raed Ventures and London's Cur8 Capital with strategic angel investors, to expand into the EMEA region after its UK entry. In early September 2026 Zeal announced a USD 10 million round, taking total funding to USD 14 million. One outlet called it a Series B. Investors in that round were not named, and no valuation was disclosed; earlier backers cited in coverage include Raed Ventures, Pinnacle Capital and Cur8 Capital. The company said the money would be used to activate contracts with payment acquirers to switch on its software across more than four million terminals over 24 months, and that more large-enterprise partnership announcements are coming. At the UK FinTech Awards, held in London on 23 April 2026, Zeal won Team of the Year and Belal Mohamed was named Innovator of the Year. The four-million-terminal figure reflects signed contracts to be activated over two years rather than a live count of terminals.
Leadership
- Omar Ebeid, Founder and chief executive
- Belal Mohamed, Co-founder and chief technology officer
- Amr Mohamed, Co-founder