Zest Equity Raises $3.8M to Digitize Private Market Transactions in the UAE

Zest Equity, a UAE firm digitizing private market transactions, raises $3.8 million in seed funding led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP). The platform, founded in 2021 by Rawan Baddour and Zuhair Shamma, expands beyond secondary trading to offer a unique and scalable platform for ecosystem participants. Zest Equity enables investors and founders to interact efficiently, streamlining fundraising rounds, document sharing, and deal procedures, while also providing a legal framework for creating investment syndicates.

The funds, totaling $5.7 million, will be used to develop new instruments to further streamline processes. Zest Equity is creating tools to assist businesses in establishing consistent procedures for trading secondary shares, enhancing transparency, expediting sale approvals, and facilitating investor access to liquidity. The platform aims to address gaps in the Middle East and is expanding its focus to emerging regions like North Africa, South Asia, and Turkey.

According to Baddour, Zest Equity's tech-first approach automates manual processes, offering a digital platform for stakeholders to obtain and share data. The platform's evolving tools aim to simplify and accelerate private market transactions, providing a trustworthy solution for investors and businesses in the Middle East.

MEVP's Walid Mansour acknowledges Zest Equity's value in digitizing private market transactions, highlighting the urgent need for such solutions in the growing ecosystem. Zest Equity's commitment to bridging gaps aligns with its expansion into regions facing similar challenges, emphasizing the importance of transparent and efficient private market transactions.