Dubai: His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, congratulated Ziina on winning the Dubai-it Award for Companies in the Field of Business. The award recognises the company’s success in developing a financial platform in Dubai that provides entrepreneurs with fast and convenient payment solutions. It also recognises Ziina’s rapid transformation from a peer-to-peer transfer app into an integrated financial platform.
His Highness said: “The Dubai-it Award for Companies in the Field of Business goes to Ziina. Built in Dubai by young Arab entrepreneurs, Ziina made accepting payments by phone simpler for thousands of businesses, with payment volume surpassing $1.5 billion in record time.”
His Highness added: “Faisal, Sarah and Talal Toukan saw an opportunity in Dubai to build an integrated financial platform, which they named after their mother. Today, Ziina serves 500,000 users and supports 290,000 business owners. This is Dubai-it: building from the ground up, growing with ambition and creating an impact that extends beyond the business itself. Congratulations to the Ziina team.”
Ziina: How it started
Siblings Faisal, Sarah and Talal Toukan developed the Ziina payments platform from scratch in Dubai, offering a unified experience that allows individuals and businesses to send, receive, save and spend money with ease.
The platform redesigned the payments experience to make it simpler and more seamless on mobile. It also enabled business owners to accept payments directly through their phones without the need for separate payment devices.
Over four years, Ziina has introduced more than 13 products and features, enabling users to send, receive, save and spend money. Its payment volume has surpassed $1.5 billion, and the platform now serves 500,000 users and supports more than 290,000 business owners, including small and medium-sized enterprises and home-based entrepreneurs across the UAE.
The company achieved 163% growth in the number of active businesses on the platform within a year and has continued to expand its user base since launch.
His Excellency Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Chairman of The Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: “Dubai offers opportunities to everyone. For young Arabs, it provides an environment where they can build companies, develop capabilities and turn ideas into extraordinary success. Dubai-it, the city’s philosophy of work, gives that ambition a clear direction: extraordinary achievement with excellence, in record time. Ziina demonstrates the ability of young Arabs to help build the new economy by developing financial solutions that support business growth and open more pathways to entrepreneurship.”
His Excellency added: “Recognising Ziina with the Dubai-it Award honours a company that has turned the opportunities Dubai offers into Arab technological capabilities and tangible economic value. We want the award to inspire more young people to take the initiative and build successful businesses. Every successful company emerging from Dubai creates new opportunities and demonstrates that the ambitions of youth can become achievements that compete on the world stage.”
Ziina’s journey reflects the Dubai-it approach to work: speed in development, excellence in user experience and exceptional growth that turns financial technology into real value for individuals and businesses.
Dubai-it initiative
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched the Dubai-it initiative to embody Dubai’s philosophy of work and its development model, which is built on achievement, hard work and a determination to turn ambitions into tangible accomplishments in record time.
The initiative aims to embed a culture of achievement across institutions and companies and to turn Dubai’s philosophy of work into a sustainable institutional approach built on speed, mastery and impact.
Launched under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Dubai-it Award is an annual recognition of individuals and organisations that embody Dubai’s philosophy of work by delivering exceptional achievements to the highest standards in record time.
The award recognises individuals, projects, institutions and companies that have transformed ideas and ambitions into tangible results, demonstrating Dubai’s philosophy of turning vision into action and delivering meaningful impact.
More about Ziina
Founded in 2020 by Faisal Toukan, Sarah Toukan and Talal Toukan, Ziina is a UAE-based fintech platform licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. The company states its mission is to enable financial freedom for every person in the Arab world by providing consumers and businesses with a fast and secure way to spend, receive and manage money.
Ziina offers a range of financial products and services, including instant transfers, customisable payment links, QR code payments, Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, and the Ziina Card, which is available through Apple Pay and Google Pay. It also operates Ziina Violet, a lifestyle membership programme that provides benefits from leading UAE brands and zero currency fees on international spending with the Ziina Card.
The company offers its services without initiation fees or hidden charges. Today, Ziina serves more than 550,000 consumers and businesses annually in the UAE, while its annualised transaction volume exceeds $1.5 billion, according to the company.