Ziina and Virtuzone Join Forces for SME Growth

Starting a business in the UAE often involves juggling multiple priorities at once - setting up the company, ensuring compliance, and getting the systems in place to start accepting payments. For many entrepreneurs, the sooner they can begin collecting revenue, the smoother the early stages of the business become.

A new partnership between Ziina and Virtuzone aims to simplify that process for businesses operating in the UAE.

The collaboration brings together company formation services and payments infrastructure, giving new and existing Virtuzone clients direct access to Ziina’s payment solutions. This means businesses can set up their company and quickly enable payment acceptance through a single ecosystem.

Through Ziina’s platform, merchants can accept and manage transactions across both online and in-person channels. The system supports multiple payment methods, including payment links, QR code payments, Tap to Pay, card payments, and bank transfers.

According to Faisal Toukan, entrepreneurs usually focus on speed and simplicity when launching a new venture. He noted that payments infrastructure plays an important role from the moment a business becomes operational. By integrating Ziina’s payment solutions into the Virtuzone ecosystem, founders can start accepting payments and accessing their funds more quickly while maintaining better visibility over their cash flow.

From Virtuzone’s perspective, payment acceptance is an important part of helping businesses become fully operational. George Hojeige explained that company formation services are not only about registering a business but also about ensuring it has the right operational tools in place from the start. Integrating a regulated payment solution into the company formation journey helps founders build a stronger foundation for growth.

One of the key features of Ziina’s platform is instant settlement. This allows merchants to access funds as soon as payments are received, rather than waiting for traditional settlement cycles. Businesses can then use the Ziina Card directly within the app to manage spending and operational expenses. For many SMEs, faster access to funds can make a difference in managing supplier payments, payroll, and other ongoing costs.

Payment flexibility also plays a role in business growth. Research from Visa indicates that more than 70 percent of merchants in the UAE reported higher revenues after adopting digital payments, while 68 percent linked their business growth to accepting multiple payment methods.

The timing of this partnership reflects the broader growth of the SME ecosystem in the country. According to the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism, SMEs account for more than 94 percent of registered companies in the UAE and employ around 86 percent of the private sector workforce. By the end of 2025, the number of businesses operating in the country had surpassed 1.4 million.

This steady growth has been supported by ongoing regulatory reforms, digital government services, and initiatives designed to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start and scale businesses.

Ziina focuses on building regulated financial products tailored to modern commerce in the UAE, particularly for SMEs looking for faster settlement, better liquidity management, and simplified payment operations.

Meanwhile, Virtuzone has worked with more than 80,000 entrepreneurs since its founding, providing services that include company formation, accounting, tax support, compliance, and advisory services.

For entrepreneurs entering the UAE market, partnerships like this reflect a broader shift toward integrated business services - where setting up a company and running it operationally are becoming more connected than ever.