ZINNA X LIGATURE
CASE STUDY



The notification chimed at 3:47 AM Dubai time. Anton Badashov refreshed his laptop screen one more time, watching the numbers cascade across his dashboard. Ziina had just crossed another milestone—50,000 active users, each one a small victory in the battle to bring financial empowerment to the Middle East. Five years earlier, he'd joined a scrappy fintech startup with big dreams and a beautiful name. Ziina, meaning "beauty" or "ornament" in Arabic.
Anton closed his laptop and walked to his window, looking out at Dubai's gleaming skyline. The city that had adopted him from his early days at Careem was now home to his greatest design achievement.
In a few hours, he'd wake up to messages from his team celebrating their latest Red Dot Award—the only product designed and built in the MENA region to win that year. But the real victory wasn't the accolades. It was the 280 dollars flowing through Ziina's platform every 60 seconds, each transaction representing someone's rent payment, a friend's birthday gift, or a small business making a sale.
"Our openness to different cultures and art, as well as the blending of our vast and rich heritage with our experience and new technologies has resulted in a design we are incredibly proud of."
Anton Badashov


The path to Ziina began in the sprawling engineering halls of Bryansk State Technical University, where Anton earned his degree in computer programming. But it was during his time at Yandex and later Careem that he discovered his true calling wasn't just in code—it was in the invisible magic that happens when technology meets human emotion. At Careem, the region's $3.1 billion unicorn, he cut his teeth on products that millions of people touched daily, learning how to design for a diverse, rapidly digitizing Middle Eastern market.
When Ziina's founders approached him in 2020, the fintech landscape in the region was dominated by traditional banks and international players who seemed to view the Middle East as an afterthought. Their apps felt sterile, corporate, designed in Silicon Valley for Silicon Valley. Anton saw something different: an opportunity to create something that felt authentically Middle Eastern while being technologically sophisticated.
"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."
Anton Badashov
This philosophy would become the foundation for everything that followed—a design approach that combined traditional Middle Eastern patterns with bold typography and 3D illustrations, creating something that felt both local and global, familiar and innovative.
The early days weren't easy. Building a peer-to-peer payment app in a region where most people were unbanked required more than just good design—it required cultural sensitivity and deep market understanding. Anton spent countless hours researching how people in the Middle East talked about money, discovering that financial conversations were often avoided, considered taboo. His design challenge became clear: create an experience so delightful that it would break down social barriers around money discussions.
The breakthrough came with ZiiBoard, a patented "payments keyboard" that would become Anton's signature innovation. The idea was elegantly simple: instead of forcing merchants to jump between apps and copy-paste payment links, ZiiBoard integrated directly into messaging apps like WhatsApp and Instagram, allowing businesses to generate payment links and collect payments in three taps.
"Ziina stands out with its exceptional user experience and design, having been recognised with and awarded nine international UI/UX design awards, including the prestigious Red Dot Award. The ZiiBoard continues this design tradition, with technology that serves customer needs by integrating payments effortlessly into the way merchants are already conducting their business."
Anton Badashov
The impact was immediate. Transactions that previously took 10-20 minutes of awkward back-and-forth messaging were reduced to 10 seconds. Small businesses that had struggled with payment collection suddenly had a tool that worked within their existing workflows. The feature addressed a uniquely Middle Eastern challenge: the preference for personal, relationship-based commerce conducted through messaging apps rather than formal e-commerce platforms.
But ZiiBoard was just the beginning. As Anton's team grew from a handful of designers to a full product organization, they tackled bigger challenges. The platform evolved from simple peer-to-peer transfers to a comprehensive financial ecosystem with Ziina Personal for bill splitting and expense management, and Ziina Business for merchant services. Each product maintained the same design philosophy: safety, speed, social connection, user-friendliness, and delight.
The numbers told the story of their success. Over five years, Ziina achieved 10x revenue growth, 34% month-over-month customer growth, and was processing toward $300 million in annualized volume. But Anton measures success differently. He points to the nine international design awards, including the prestigious Red Dot Award, as proof that Middle Eastern design could compete on the global stage.
Working with Dan and Daniel from Ligature provided Anton with crucial guidance during Ziina's rapid scaling phase. The mentorship came at a pivotal moment when the company was transitioning from a consumer-focused app to a comprehensive business platform. Ligature's advice flowed from high-level design strategy down to pragmatic discussions about iconography and user experience details.
The partnership proved its value during critical product launches. When Ziina was preparing to launch new features, Ligature's network and strategic guidance helped them reach tens of thousands of users and achieve top rankings on Product Hunt. For Anton, this wasn't just about marketing—it was validation that design-first thinking could drive business results.
"We believe that putting people in control of their finances, and refining every detail to bring delight to our customers, will make them fall in love with our products."
Anton Badashov
This philosophy extended beyond the product itself to how he built his design team. He instituted regular one-on-ones with designers, created internal showcases to manifest the value of design to leadership, and hosted design-related sessions to build a culture of creative excellence.
His approach to hiring was equally thoughtful. Rather than looking for designers who could simply execute specifications, he sought individuals who understood the broader business context and could advocate for user needs at the strategic level. The result was a team that could move fluidly between pixel-perfect execution and high-level product strategy.
The $22 million Series A round led by Altos Ventures in September 2024 marked a new chapter for Ziina, but for Anton, it was validation of a design philosophy that had guided him since day one. The funding wasn't just about capital—it was recognition that a design-first approach could build a sustainable, scalable business in one of the world's most competitive fintech markets.
As Ziina expands beyond payments into end-to-end financial services, Anton's role is evolving from head of design to strategic leader. The company is launching ZiiCard for expense management, exploring new merchant services, and building toward their vision of financial freedom for every person in the Middle East. Each new product must maintain the design excellence that has become Ziina's signature while serving an increasingly diverse customer base.
"Access isn't a privilege—it's a right."
Anton Badashov
"Access isn't a privilege—it's a right," Anton says, describing the mission that drives his work. This isn't just startup rhetoric; it's a deeply held belief that shapes every design decision. In a region where traditional banking has left millions underserved, Ziina's success proves that thoughtful design can be a force for financial inclusion.
Looking forward, Anton sees his five years at Ziina as a masterclass in building product organizations that can scale without losing their soul. The lessons he's learned—about balancing local cultural sensitivity with global design standards, about building teams that can execute at startup speed while maintaining enterprise quality, about turning design excellence into business advantage—are principles he'll carry into whatever comes next.
The awards and accolades matter, but Anton's proudest accomplishment is simpler: helping build a product that makes people's lives better, one transaction at a time. In a region where financial technology has often felt foreign and impersonal, Ziina represents something different—a homegrown solution that understands its users' needs, speaks their language, and respects their culture while pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
As Dubai's lights twinkle below his window, Anton knows that Ziina's story is just beginning. The platform that started as a simple peer-to-peer payment app has become the foundation for a new kind of financial services company, one that proves design excellence and business success aren't just compatible—they're inseparable.