peer-to-peer-payments
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How a Forgotten Wallet Turned Into America's Verb for Money
Venmo turned paying a friend back into a social ritual - complete with emojis and a public feed. Fifteen years later, "just Venmo me" is how a generation moves money.
Ziina زينة
Ziina is a Dubai-based fintech that lets people and small businesses send, spend, and get paid from a phone. Launched in 2020 as one of the UAE's first peer-to-peer payment apps, it removes the friction of IBANs and Swift codes by moving money through a phone number, then extends into business tools: payment links, QR and NFC Tap to Pay, a checkout gateway for online stores, and an upcoming business card. Licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE as a stored value facility, Ziina has raised more than $30 million and serves tens of thousands of consumer and business customers across the MENA region.
Trustap
Trustap is an Irish fintech that provides escrow-style, milestone-based payment infrastructure for online marketplaces, ecommerce platforms and individuals. Acting as the merchant of record, it holds a buyer's funds until goods or services are confirmed as delivered, then releases them to the seller - reducing fraud, chargebacks and disputes for high-value and peer-to-peer transactions. Founded in Cork in 2017 by Conor Lyden after he was scammed buying football tickets, the company now works with 250+ partners across roughly 27 countries and is building Trustap Index, a product that makes marketplace listings machine-readable and transactable by AI shopping agents.