Zest Equity gets $3.8M funding to digitise private market transactions

• Zest is building a convenient and comprehensive tool to make it easier for existing stakeholders of private companies to transact and benefit from liquidity, in a pre-approved and transparent manner.

Abu Dhabi-based Zest Equity secures a $3.8 million seed round to provide private market stakeholders with a comprehensive solution to conduct transactions and access liquidity. 

Funding for the Hub71 startup was led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), with participation from the Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF) and DASH Ventures.

To date, Zest Equity has raised a total of $5.7 million with early backers including DFDF, 500 Sanabil, Nuwa Capital, and a significant group of regional angel investors, co-founders and family offices.

Expansion on the radar

Rawan Baddour, Co-founder of Zest Equity said that the startup was born to encourage better communication, transparency and process standardisation within private market transactions.

“At its core, what Zest is building is a convenient and comprehensive tool designed to cut the costs and complexities involved in traditional private market transactions. Our platform digitises the transaction process making it easier for existing stakeholders (founders, investors, and employees) of private companies to transact and benefit from liquidity, in a pre-approved and transparent manner.”

Zest will also use the funds to expand its product offering in the MENA region.

Walid Mansour, Co-CEO, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), said that Zest Equity has already proven to be a valuable and dependable solution for digitising private market transactions in the Middle East in a relatively short time.

“As more startups and investors mature, they inevitably seek more avenues to liquidity and opportunity. This clearly illustrates that our ecosystem’s need for this solution is growing. Rawan and Zuhair understand this need firsthand and have built an incredible team and product in response. Betting on them was easy.”