LIGATURE X ZIINA
LIGATURE X ZIINA
CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY
How we helped Ziina design the #1 finance app in the UAE.
How we helped Ziina design the #1 finance app in the UAE.
How we helped Ziina design the #1 finance app in the UAE.
Ziina is an incredible case study of our unique approach to investing in companies at the earliest stages and then partnering deeply to add real value.
We made our first invesmtnet in Ziina in early 2021. We've since followed-on four times in every subsequent round they've raised — while spending countless hour with their team in creative reviews each month. All to help them design and build the #1 finance app in the UAE — and soon the broader Middle East.
As such, we can think of no better testament to our unique model. Below you'll find a collection of work that captures the evolution of Ziina's products, as well as an interview with Anton Badashov — Ziina's Founding Designer and now Head of Design, who we've worked with closely the entire time.
Ziina is an incredible case study of our unique approach to investing in companies at the earliest stages and then partnering deeply to add real value.
We made our first invesmtnet in Ziina in early 2021. We've since followed-on four times in every subsequent round they've raised — while spending countless hour with their team in creative reviews each month. All to help them design and build the #1 finance app in the UAE — and soon the broader Middle East.
As such, we can think of no better testament to our unique model. Below you'll find a collection of work that captures the evolution of Ziina's products, as well as an interview with Anton Badashov — Ziina's Founding Designer and now Head of Design, who we've worked with closely the entire time.
Ziina is an incredible case study of our unique approach to investing in companies at the earliest stages and then partnering deeply to add real value.
We made our first invesmtnet in Ziina in early 2021. We've since followed-on four times in every subsequent round they've raised — while spending countless hour with their team in creative reviews each month. All to help them design and build the #1 finance app in the UAE — and soon the broader Middle East.
As such, we can think of no better testament to our unique model. Below you'll find a collection of work that captures the evolution of Ziina's products, as well as an interview with Anton Badashov — Ziina's Founding Designer and now Head of Design, who we've worked with closely the entire time.
First investment
2021
2021
Total follow-on investments
4 Follow-On Investments
4 Follow-On Investments
Revenue growth since first investment
10x Revenue Growth
10x Revenue Growth
Awards
An interview with Anton Badashov.
An interview with Anton Badashov.
An interview with Anton Badashov.
Since 2021, when we made our first investment in Ziina's Seed round, we've worked incredibly closely with Anton Badashov — Ziina's Founding Designer and now their Head of Design.
Over that time, we've spent countless hours together each month in creative reviews debating priorities and design choices.
As we reflect on 5 years together, we sat down with Anton to get his perspective on Ziina's early years, the principles he uses in his work, and the lessons he's taken away from working together.
Since 2021, when we made our first investment in Ziina's Seed round, we've worked incredibly closely with Anton Badashov — Ziina's Founding Designer and now their Head of Design.
Over that time, we've spent countless hours together each month in creative reviews debating priorities and design choices.
As we reflect on 5 years together, we sat down with Anton to get his perspective on Ziina's early years, the principles he uses in his work, and the lessons he's taken away from working together.
Since 2021, when we made our first investment in Ziina's Seed round, we've worked incredibly closely with Anton Badashov — Ziina's Founding Designer and now their Head of Design.
Over that time, we've spent countless hours together each month in creative reviews debating priorities and design choices.
As we reflect on 5 years together, we sat down with Anton to get his perspective on Ziina's early years, the principles he uses in his work, and the lessons he's taken away from working together.
What was it like in the earliest days of ZIINA?
Joining Ziina as the first designer and second employee felt like the newspaper ad Richard Shackleton paid for in the London Times in 1913 to recruit the crew for his Antarctic voyage: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
What was it like in the earliest days of ZIINA?
Joining Ziina as the first designer and second employee felt like the newspaper ad Richard Shackleton paid for in the London Times in 1913 to recruit the crew for his Antarctic voyage: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
What was it like in the earliest days of ZIINA?
Joining Ziina as the first designer and second employee felt like the newspaper ad Richard Shackleton paid for in the London Times in 1913 to recruit the crew for his Antarctic voyage: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
Our mission was set from day one and never wavered: bring financial freedom to every person in the Middle East. With just five people total, we built our first peer-to-peer payment app from scratch. The journey involved countless hours of user testing, iteration on designs and interactions, and navigating a lot of complex regulatory hurdles.
Our mission was set from day one and never wavered: bring financial freedom to every person in the Middle East. With just five people total, we built our first peer-to-peer payment app from scratch. The journey involved countless hours of user testing, iteration on designs and interactions, and navigating a lot of complex regulatory hurdles.
Our mission was set from day one and never wavered: bring financial freedom to every person in the Middle East. With just five people total, we built our first peer-to-peer payment app from scratch. The journey involved countless hours of user testing, iteration on designs and interactions, and navigating a lot of complex regulatory hurdles.
"Ligature helped us dodge pitfalls we didn't even know existed. Every idea we brought to sessions, they found ways to elevate to a world-class level."
"Ligature helped us dodge pitfalls we didn't even know existed. Every idea we brought to sessions, they found ways to elevate to a world-class level."
"Ligature helped us dodge pitfalls we didn't even know existed. Every idea we brought to sessions, they found ways to elevate to a world-class level."
As you look back, what decisions, products, and milestones are you most proud of?
We prioritized accessibility from the start. We chose colors and font sizes carefully, and made the app simple enough for anyone to use. In Dubai, where 90% of the country are expats, we designed for maximum clarity: one tab to receive money, one to send, one for transactions. Our craft won us Red Dot and UX Design awards.
Then came the pivot to business payments. During our user research interviews, we discovered small businesses were constantly switching between apps—opening their bank app to generate an invoice, copying it, switching back to WhatsApp or Instagram to paste and send to customers. From this insight we built Ziiboard: a native keyboard for iOS and Android that lets you generate and share invoices from anywhere in iOS (without leaving your conversation). While niche, it became a beloved tool with some businesses running entirely on it.
Ziiboard was our first big product-led growth hit. After launch, we started to quickly find product-market fit and growing really quickly month-over-month. With our focus on product-led growth (PLG), we iterated constantly on growth loops, referral flows, and ways to help users share Ziina with their peers. Dan & Daniel from Ligature were instrumental here. Their experience working on these growth loops for Square, Cash App, Strava, and Instagram was incredibly helpful.
The results speak for themselves. Over the last 5 years, we've grown annual revenue more than 10x and sustained 30%+ MoM growth across our business and consumer customers. In September 2024, we raised $22M in a Series A led by Altos Ventures which brought our total funding to $30M and made Ziina one of the best capitalized fintech companies in the Gulf region.
Today, Ziina offers payment links, gateways, APIs, QR codes, NFC cards, and Tap-to-Pay. We're helping businesses start accepting payments in minutes, while others wait months just to open bank accounts. More importantly, we've made substantial progress toward our mission of bringing financial freedom to every person in the Middle East.
As you look back, what decisions, products, and milestones are you most proud of?
We prioritized accessibility from the start. We chose colors and font sizes carefully, and made the app simple enough for anyone to use. In Dubai, where 90% of the country are expats, we designed for maximum clarity: one tab to receive money, one to send, one for transactions. Our craft won us Red Dot and UX Design awards.
Then came the pivot to business payments. During our user research interviews, we discovered small businesses were constantly switching between apps—opening their bank app to generate an invoice, copying it, switching back to WhatsApp or Instagram to paste and send to customers. From this insight we built Ziiboard: a native keyboard for iOS and Android that lets you generate and share invoices from anywhere in iOS (without leaving your conversation). While niche, it became a beloved tool with some businesses running entirely on it.
Ziiboard was our first big product-led growth hit. After launch, we started to quickly find product-market fit and growing really quickly month-over-month. With our focus on product-led growth (PLG), we iterated constantly on growth loops, referral flows, and ways to help users share Ziina with their peers. Dan & Daniel from Ligature were instrumental here. Their experience working on these growth loops for Square, Cash App, Strava, and Instagram was incredibly helpful.
The results speak for themselves. Over the last 5 years, we've grown annual revenue more than 10x and sustained 30%+ MoM growth across our business and consumer customers. In September 2024, we raised $22M in a Series A led by Altos Ventures which brought our total funding to $30M and made Ziina one of the best capitalized fintech companies in the Gulf region.
Today, Ziina offers payment links, gateways, APIs, QR codes, NFC cards, and Tap-to-Pay. We're helping businesses start accepting payments in minutes, while others wait months just to open bank accounts. More importantly, we've made substantial progress toward our mission of bringing financial freedom to every person in the Middle East.
As you look back, what decisions, products, and milestones are you most proud of?
We prioritized accessibility from the start. We chose colors and font sizes carefully, and made the app simple enough for anyone to use. In Dubai, where 90% of the country are expats, we designed for maximum clarity: one tab to receive money, one to send, one for transactions. Our craft won us Red Dot and UX Design awards.
Then came the pivot to business payments. During our user research interviews, we discovered small businesses were constantly switching between apps—opening their bank app to generate an invoice, copying it, switching back to WhatsApp or Instagram to paste and send to customers. From this insight we built Ziiboard: a native keyboard for iOS and Android that lets you generate and share invoices from anywhere in iOS (without leaving your conversation). While niche, it became a beloved tool with some businesses running entirely on it.
Ziiboard was our first big product-led growth hit. After launch, we started to quickly find product-market fit and growing really quickly month-over-month. With our focus on product-led growth (PLG), we iterated constantly on growth loops, referral flows, and ways to help users share Ziina with their peers. Dan & Daniel from Ligature were instrumental here. Their experience working on these growth loops for Square, Cash App, Strava, and Instagram was incredibly helpful.
The results speak for themselves. Over the last 5 years, we've grown annual revenue more than 10x and sustained 30%+ MoM growth across our business and consumer customers. In September 2024, we raised $22M in a Series A led by Altos Ventures which brought our total funding to $30M and made Ziina one of the best capitalized fintech companies in the Gulf region.
Today, Ziina offers payment links, gateways, APIs, QR codes, NFC cards, and Tap-to-Pay. We're helping businesses start accepting payments in minutes, while others wait months just to open bank accounts. More importantly, we've made substantial progress toward our mission of bringing financial freedom to every person in the Middle East.
"Ziina means beauty or ornament in Arabic. We believe strongly in the ability of art and design to change people's lives for the better."
"Ziina means beauty or ornament in Arabic. We believe strongly in the ability of art and design to change people's lives for the better."
"Ziina means beauty or ornament in Arabic. We believe strongly in the ability of art and design to change people's lives for the better."
What have you taken away from 5 years of creative reviews and working sessions with Ligature?
Looking back, there were so many conversations that fundamentally shaped how we designed and built Ziina. A few lessons really stick out.
Connecting vision. Dan & Daniel helped us zoom out to a 2-year view, then back to the next 6-12 months, forcing us to tie our big bets to measurable short-term outcomes. This helped us shape our product design strategy and be intentional about sequencing. They made us focus on what matters now and connect the dots as we moved forward.
Growth mechanics that actually work. We spent countless sessions perfecting our growth loops. From copy tweaks to incentive structures, Dan & Daniel grounded our ideas in human psychology—appealing to the "lizard brain" while keeping experiences clear and emotional. They turned our theoretical growth ideas into practical loops that drove our 34% month-on-month customer growth.
Building exceptional small teams. Our hiring discussions were extremely helping. Finding talent is hard enough, but reflecting on our culture, team and processes helped us understand who thrives in our environment—this became our hiring lens. In small teams, they helped us to trust our gut about who we want to work with, while balancing it with objective skill assessment.
What have you taken away from 5 years of creative reviews and working sessions with Ligature?
Looking back, there were so many conversations that fundamentally shaped how we designed and built Ziina. A few lessons really stick out.
Connecting vision. Dan & Daniel helped us zoom out to a 2-year view, then back to the next 6-12 months, forcing us to tie our big bets to measurable short-term outcomes. This helped us shape our product design strategy and be intentional about sequencing. They made us focus on what matters now and connect the dots as we moved forward.
Growth mechanics that actually work. We spent countless sessions perfecting our growth loops. From copy tweaks to incentive structures, Dan & Daniel grounded our ideas in human psychology—appealing to the "lizard brain" while keeping experiences clear and emotional. They turned our theoretical growth ideas into practical loops that drove our 34% month-on-month customer growth.
Building exceptional small teams. Our hiring discussions were extremely helping. Finding talent is hard enough, but reflecting on our culture, team and processes helped us understand who thrives in our environment—this became our hiring lens. In small teams, they helped us to trust our gut about who we want to work with, while balancing it with objective skill assessment.
What have you taken away from 5 years of creative reviews and working sessions with Ligature?
Looking back, there were so many conversations that fundamentally shaped how we designed and built Ziina. A few lessons really stick out.
Connecting vision. Dan & Daniel helped us zoom out to a 2-year view, then back to the next 6-12 months, forcing us to tie our big bets to measurable short-term outcomes. This helped us shape our product design strategy and be intentional about sequencing. They made us focus on what matters now and connect the dots as we moved forward.
Growth mechanics that actually work. We spent countless sessions perfecting our growth loops. From copy tweaks to incentive structures, Dan & Daniel grounded our ideas in human psychology—appealing to the "lizard brain" while keeping experiences clear and emotional. They turned our theoretical growth ideas into practical loops that drove our 34% month-on-month customer growth.
Building exceptional small teams. Our hiring discussions were extremely helping. Finding talent is hard enough, but reflecting on our culture, team and processes helped us understand who thrives in our environment—this became our hiring lens. In small teams, they helped us to trust our gut about who we want to work with, while balancing it with objective skill assessment.
What has Ziina taught you about what it takes to build great products?
Everything at Ziina proved one truth: great products come from uncompromising principles, the right people, and relentless simplification. Our design framework: remove friction, simplify then add delight. Create experiences that are both emotionally impact and efficient: fast but human, simple but memorable.
What has Ziina taught you about what it takes to build great products?
Everything at Ziina proved one truth: great products come from uncompromising principles, the right people, and relentless simplification. Our design framework: remove friction, simplify then add delight. Create experiences that are both emotionally impact and efficient: fast but human, simple but memorable.
What has Ziina taught you about what it takes to build great products?
Everything at Ziina proved one truth: great products come from uncompromising principles, the right people, and relentless simplification. Our design framework: remove friction, simplify then add delight. Create experiences that are both emotionally impact and efficient: fast but human, simple but memorable.
"What made Dan & Daniel special was their range: from tiny UI details to company strategy."
"What made Dan & Daniel special was their range: from tiny UI details to company strategy."
"What made Dan & Daniel special was their range: from tiny UI details to company strategy."
What principles have guided your design work at Ziina?
Write the outcome first. Before doing any design work, draft a one-line “job to be done,” select one primary metric you'll use to judge success, and capture the story of what you're building and why it matters in a few short paragraphs.
Triangulate, don’t telescope. With user research and customer feedback, it's critical to look for patterns across a wide variety of voices. That's how you get to truth and the heart of what matters. Not by zooming in on one voice or squeaky wheel.
Cut steps, then cut them again. Speed beats sparkle most of the time. Every click and tap you remove shortens the time-to-value for your customers. Speed compounds growth by making your product quicker and simpler to adopt.
Understand the business deeply. Your margins, runway, and business model should all impact your design decisions. By understanding these things deeply, and then designing from first principles for these things, you improve your intuition.
Remove the inessential, craft what's left. We start by stripping away everything unnecessary—boiling complexity down until all we're left with is simplicity. Then we pour craft into what's left and invest in emotional touches like 3D artwork and animations for key moments.
What principles have guided your design work at Ziina?
Write the outcome first. Before doing any design work, draft a one-line “job to be done,” select one primary metric you'll use to judge success, and capture the story of what you're building and why it matters in a few short paragraphs.
Triangulate, don’t telescope. With user research and customer feedback, it's critical to look for patterns across a wide variety of voices. That's how you get to truth and the heart of what matters. Not by zooming in on one voice or squeaky wheel.
Cut steps, then cut them again. Speed beats sparkle most of the time. Every click and tap you remove shortens the time-to-value for your customers. Speed compounds growth by making your product quicker and simpler to adopt.
Understand the business deeply. Your margins, runway, and business model should all impact your design decisions. By understanding these things deeply, and then designing from first principles for these things, you improve your intuition.
Remove the inessential, craft what's left. We start by stripping away everything unnecessary—boiling complexity down until all we're left with is simplicity. Then we pour craft into what's left and invest in emotional touches like 3D artwork and animations for key moments.
What principles have guided your design work at Ziina?
Write the outcome first. Before doing any design work, draft a one-line “job to be done,” select one primary metric you'll use to judge success, and capture the story of what you're building and why it matters in a few short paragraphs.
Triangulate, don’t telescope. With user research and customer feedback, it's critical to look for patterns across a wide variety of voices. That's how you get to truth and the heart of what matters. Not by zooming in on one voice or squeaky wheel.
Cut steps, then cut them again. Speed beats sparkle most of the time. Every click and tap you remove shortens the time-to-value for your customers. Speed compounds growth by making your product quicker and simpler to adopt.
Understand the business deeply. Your margins, runway, and business model should all impact your design decisions. By understanding these things deeply, and then designing from first principles for these things, you improve your intuition.
Remove the inessential, craft what's left. We start by stripping away everything unnecessary—boiling complexity down until all we're left with is simplicity. Then we pour craft into what's left and invest in emotional touches like 3D artwork and animations for key moments.
For more from Anton Badashov, check out his portfolio and articles at Badashov.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.
For more from Anton Badashov, check out his portfolio and articles at Badashov.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.
For more from Anton Badashov, check out his portfolio and articles at Badashov.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.
© 2025 Ligature. All rights reserved. Ligature Quarterly Fund LLC (“Ligature”) maintains the website ligature.vc. Information with respect to Ligature is available through Ligature.vc. Ligature does not solicit, offer, or sell securities via the Internet. Any representations to the contrary and any websites other than Ligature.vc are not endorsed by Ligature. Ligature is a registered trademark of Ligature Quarterly Fund LLC.
© 2025 Ligature. All rights reserved. Ligature Quarterly Fund LLC (“Ligature”) maintains the website ligature.vc. Information with respect to Ligature is available through Ligature.vc. Ligature does not solicit, offer, or sell securities via the Internet. Any representations to the contrary and any websites other than Ligature.vc are not endorsed by Ligature. Ligature is a registered trademark of Ligature Quarterly Fund LLC.