ZEN.COM is a financial app built by people from e-commerce. For the past five years, it has been changing the way users manage their money and shopping. Instead of juggling multiple apps – banking, payments, loyalty programs – users can access everything in one place, with instant cashback, purchase protection, and extended warranty included. Łukasz Neska, Chief Growth Officer at ZEN.COM, explains how finance is becoming an everyday companion, why partnerships are replacing traditional marketing, and how to build sustainable growth without burning through advertising budgets.
Financial companion: payments in the background, benefits front and center
MMP: Not long ago, payment was a separate stage of the shopping journey. Today, consumers expect finance to work quietly in the background – fast, intuitive, and frictionless. At the same time, apps that combine payments, shopping, currency exchange, rewards, and money management are becoming increasingly popular. Does the future belong to so-called financial companions that become everyday partners for users?
Łukasz Neska: That’s exactly what we’re aiming for. The name ZEN.COM is no coincidence – it refers to the philosophy of bringing peace of mind and making everyday life easier. Today, people use separate apps for banking, payments, and loyalty programs. We want to simplify that entire ecosystem within a single app.
Instead of logging into a bank, then a cashback platform, and later a loyalty program – a process that can easily take ten minutes – the same transaction takes just thirty seconds with us. Payments themselves are becoming almost invisible, but we are entering the next phase. It’s no longer only about paying quickly – users now expect tangible benefits.
With every purchase, users collect gems that can be instantly exchanged for financial rewards. Cashback is credited immediately – there’s no waiting 30, 60, or 90 days. On top of that, there’s purchase protection: if an item never arrives or a merchant turns out to be unreliable, we recover the funds on behalf of the customer. And when it comes to electronics, we automatically extend the manufacturer’s warranty by an additional two years.
We are not trying to replace your bank. Users can connect their existing bank card or set up automatic top-ups via BLIK – when the balance drops below a certain threshold, the ZEN.COM account replenishes itself automatically. That’s what being a companion means, rather than simply another payment tool.
Partnerships instead of traditional marketing
MMP: In a world where products alone are no longer enough to stand out, financial brands increasingly build competitive advantage through partnerships, experiences, and additional customer benefits. Mastercard partners with major sporting events and ambassadors, while fintechs are expanding cashback and rewards ecosystems. Are partnerships and ecosystems becoming just as important for growth as technology itself?
Łukasz Neska: Absolutely. Mastercard is a strategic partner for us – without them, ZEN.COM might never have existed. They have supported our growth from the very beginning. Thanks to this partnership, we are able to offer solutions and benefits that would be difficult to build on our own.
Every ZEN.COM user has access to Mastercard’s Priceless Specials rewards program. On top of that, we add our own layer of value, so customers effectively benefit twice. Our card is connected to a multi-currency account, allowing payments in 35 currencies at highly competitive exchange rates. And then we enrich the experience with purchase protection, instant cashback, and extended warranty.
A great example of partnership is our cooperation with Kuchnia Vikinga, one of the top five e-commerce companies in Poland. After implementing our solutions, their sales increased by more than 2,000% week over week. What’s more, 30% of new customers came from competing meal delivery services.
How did we achieve that? We integrated our payment gateway, brought them into the cashback ecosystem, and created a dedicated payment card. This is crucial because meal plans are usually purchased once a month, but having a branded card in your wallet creates a daily connection with the brand. The card rewards healthy habits – buying healthy food or paying for a gym membership generates benefits for users. It’s a natural way to extend the relationship between the brand and its customers.
Growth engine: product and recommendations at the center
MMP: Customer acquisition costs are rising across almost every industry. Does the future belong to companies that drive growth not through ever-larger advertising budgets, but through products and services people want to come back to every day? What does an effective growth engine in financial services look like today?
Łukasz Neska: I’ve spent my entire career in e-commerce, so I know how difficult it has become to acquire and retain customers. Performance marketing alone is no longer enough. Marketers often struggle to convince management to invest in brand-building, especially when budgets are limited.
We take a different approach – what we call our growth stack. ZEN.COM has very strong products, and once people start using them, they develop a strong attachment and naturally want to recommend them. Referrals are one of our most important channels. Thanks to clear product differentiation, satisfied users invite friends and family on their own.
On top of that, we build partnerships, such as the one with Kuchnia Vikinga, which promoted us through its own channels. We also work with influencers. Our ambassadors included Robert Makłowicz and later Księżulo, so we stayed within the food category, although from different perspectives. Performance marketing built around influencer credibility complements these efforts.
ZEN.COM has been around for about five years, so we built our marketing capabilities around current trends from day one, without any legacy burden. We never focused solely on SEO. From the start, we paid close attention to content quality, user reviews, and visibility in new discovery channels, including AI-driven search.
We invest heavily in content, encourage customers to share their experiences, take care of reviews, and create rankings and guides. As a result, we are increasingly visible in popular AI chatbots. Users searching for alternatives to traditional banks, ways to save money abroad, or smarter shopping solutions are often introduced to ZEN.COM automatically.
We are a financial app, but one built by people from e-commerce rather than traditional banking. We understand the other side and create tools that help e-commerce businesses acquire and retain customers more effectively. This is one of the greatest advantages we offer our partners. And our users enjoy tangible benefits every day – they see them, appreciate them, and happily talk about them.
