After closing its latest financial round, Zeta became the newest member of the coveted unicorn club. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $250 million Series D round for the startup that helps banks and fintech companies launch products.

Sodexo, an existing investor in Zeta, also participated in the funding round. This year, it was the 14th Indian startup to become a unicorn. Sodexo has invested $50 million in new financing, according to a person familiar with the situation.

In 2015, entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia co-founded Zeta, which provides backbone technology for credit and credit-card processing, core banking, loans, mobile banking, and personal finance management.

Banks and financial institutions typically collaborate with a number of suppliers, each of which provides a unique piece of technology for their backbone systems. According to Bloomberg, Zeta wants to change that with its product, which combines the various elements into a single cloud-based offering.

In eight countries, the startup serves 10 banks and 25 fintech companies, including India's largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank. Zeta intends to target the world's top 300 banks as potential clients, with the US accounting for 60% of its revenue in five years. According to Bloomberg, the company intends to more than double its headcount in the next 12 months, from around 800 currently.

“Banking software is a $300 billion industry globally. Most banks still employ technology which is significantly older than their customers, impacting user experience and engagement,” says, Munish Varma, a managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.

Zeta is a modern banking technology company founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati. The company provides a full-stack, cloud-native API-ready core banking and transaction processing platform for credit, debit, and prepaid product issuance, allowing legacy banks to launch modern retail and corporate fintech products.