UAE-Based Ziina Partners with Visa to Debut Its First Digital Card for Instant Payments Ziina Card addresses challenges head-on by creating a unified flow between receiving and spending.

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Image courtesy Ziina/VISA
Faisal Toukan, Co-Founder and CEO of Ziina; and Salima Gutieva, Vice President and UAE Country Manager for Visa

Ziina, a UAE-based fintech platform offering both acquiring and issuing, has announced the launch of Ziina Card, its first digital card powered by Visa.

Available directly within Apple Wallet, Ziina Card transforms a user's Ziina balance into instant spending power, enabling both individuals and businesses to spend money the moment it is received. By partnering with Visa, Ziina ensures global acceptance, robust security, and access to exclusive rewards, reinforcing its mission to make money movement in the UAE faster, simpler, and more contextual.

Ziina Card represents a major milestone for the company and its growing user base. Tens of thousands of consumers and businesses had requested the feature, making it the single most anticipated product launch since Ziina's founding.

"We've always believed that financial services should adapt to how people actually live and work," said Faisal Toukan, Co-Founder and CEO of Ziina. "Ziina Card is the natural evolution of that vision - your money, always accessible, working the way you need it to."
"Visa is delighted to partner with Ziina to bring instant, secure, and globally accepted spending power to users in the UAE. Ziina's Visa card is a great example of how innovation can deliver faster, simpler payment experiences for consumers and businesses alike," said Salima Gutieva, Vice President and UAE Country Manager for Visa.

The launch of Ziina Card comes at a pivotal time for the UAE, where both SMEs and consumers increasingly rely on digital payments as the backbone of economic activity. SMEs account for more than 94% of companies in the UAE, contributing over 63% of GDP, yet face persistent cash flow challenges due to delayed client payments.

Meanwhile, consumers are demanding seamless, instant, and secure ways to transact in an increasingly cashless economy. In April, Ziina introduced Tap to Pay on iPhone, enabling businesses to accept contactless payments securely without the need for traditional point-of-sale hardware. With Ziina Card, the company now completes the picture—helping users not only accept money instantly but also spend it immediately, creating a fully integrated payment experience.

Ziina Card addresses these challenges head-on by creating a unified flow between receiving and spending, something traditional banks have struggled to deliver. By eliminating the "cash-out" middleman, Ziina gives businesses and individuals real-time access to funds with enriched data, improved visibility, and uncompromising security.

Real-Time Cash Flow and Smarter Financial Control for Businesses

For SMEs and freelancers, Ziina has long been the fastest way to get paid by clients. With the launch of Ziina Card, the platform now closes the loop on expense management, giving companies immediate access to earnings to pay suppliers, manage purchases, and control spending—all within a single ecosystem. By consolidating payments and expenses under one roof, businesses gain transparency, speed, and cost efficiency without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Each transaction comes with enriched merchant-level data for easier accounting, while full Central Bank licensing reinforces security and trust. This dual capability—acquiring and expense services in one place—sets Ziina apart as the financial partner of choice for tens of thousands of businesses across the UAE.

Through its partnership with Visa, Ziina is extending additional value by unlocking exclusive business rewards, including discounts on essential tools such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Freshworks, SignEasy, and Zendesk. These benefits equip SMEs with affordable digital infrastructure to scale efficiently in a competitive market.

Seamless Spending and Meaningful Context for Modern Spenders

For individuals, Ziina Card turns every dirham received on Ziina into instant purchasing power. Instead of waiting to cash out, users can tap to pay with Apple Pay anywhere cards are accepted—whether it's using dinner money from a friend to cover a ride home or splitting group expenses at the end of an evening.

Each transaction preserves the social context of the payment—the who, what, and why—while enriched merchant details inside the Ziina app provide greater visibility and control. In this way, Ziina extends the same seamless experience that has made it the go-to way to get paid, now into everyday spending.

The launch of Ziina Card builds on Ziina's introduction of Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android earlier this year, which gave businesses across the UAE a modern, hardware-free way to accept contactless payments. Together, Tap to Pay and Ziina Card create a complete ecosystem: the fastest way to get paid, and now the simplest way to spend. As the only licensed startup connecting both sides of the payment journey, Ziina is redefining how money moves in the UAE's digital economy and strengthening its role as the country's homegrown financial partner.

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