Startup credit card gets $16.5-M funding

Startup credit card gets $16.5-M funding | Daily Tribune

Zed, the credit card startup reinventing banking for the next generation of Filipinos, recently announced it has raised $16.5 million in Series A funding led by Accel, the top-tier venture capital firm known for backing industry-defining companies like Facebook, Spotify, Slack, and Dropbox.

The investment marks a significant milestone for the Philippine startup ecosystem, bringing one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious investors to the country. Accel joins existing investors Valar Ventures and notable angels, including Immad Akhund and Dalton Caldwell, bringing Zed’s total funding to $22.5 million.

Zed is solving a problem that millions of young Filipino professionals face: a banking system stuck in the past.

Despite having college degrees, stable incomes, and professional careers, many young people are rejected by traditional banks due to credit factors embedded in their credit score that don’t actually reflect their risk, like the age of their existing credit accounts, which leaves a huge segment of potentially prime customers unserved.

Zed removes these barriers by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to underwrite customers based on current income, transaction data, and other data sources outside of just traditional credit scores.

Backed by the Accel

The round is led by Accel, a firm with a decades-long track record of identifying global category leaders early.

The investment validates Zed’s ambition to harness AI in serving the vast, credit-worthy population that has been shut out of the global banking system.

“In leading Zed’s Series A, we’re backing a team with the skill and ambition to build AI-powered finance that’s transparent, personal, and accessible for customers overlooked by today’s banks worldwide,” said Nafis Jamal, Partner at Accel.

Jamal added, “Young adults navigating the banking system for the first time often find its doors mostly shut. Opaque fees, clunky apps, and impersonal interactions make it clear these institutions were built for a different era (and a different customer).”

Zed has seen massive demand since its invite-only launch. Strictly through word of mouth, the waitlist has swelled to nearly 200,000 sign-ups.

Since the beginning of the year, the customer base has grown 10x and transaction volume has surged 500 percent — all while the vast majority of the waitlist has yet to be invited.

With the new funding, Zed is accelerating its rollout to the waitlist and scaling its team. The company is actively hiring for Operations, Risk, Growth, and Support roles in Manila, as well as Product, Design, Data Science, and Engineering roles in San Francisco.

“We’re reimagining financial tools to match the speed and ambition of this generation,” said Danielle Cojuangco Abraham, Co-Founder of Zed.

“Banks in Southeast Asia are running on infrastructure designed for two decades ago,” added Steve Abraham, Co-Founder.

“This round accelerates our plan to rebuild that stack. The world is changing with large language models maturing, and a new generation of experiences across industries will be born. We envision a future where we can deliver a level of personal, proactive banking that used to be reserved for the few, and make it accessible to everyone.”