Serial entrepreneur Zeid Husban learned the operational cost of a messy cap table when it came time to exit. At SPICE, he chose Zest to do it right: dozens of angels consolidated into SPVs and a smoother path to his next exit.

About Zeid Husban and SPICE

Zeid Husban is no stranger to building successful companies. A serial entrepreneur with two exits behind him, he is today the co-founder and CEO of SPICE, a premium dining and restaurant-tech platform launched in Saudi Arabia. 

Along the way, Zeid learned firsthand the headaches that come with raising capital. That experience shaped how he approached fundraising at SPICE - and why he chose Zest to structure his fundraising vehicles.

Chasing Every Signature

When Zeid exited his last company, closing the deal meant tracking down signatures from every shareholder, one by one.

Zeid's first company, ifood.jo, Jordan's first food-ordering aggregator, never raised outside capital. Instead, Zeid self-funded the company through to its acquisition by Delivery Hero. But when it came time to build his second company, POSRocket, a cloud point-of-sale platform, Zeid needed capital for growth. He raised funds from angels and venture capital firms before exiting in 2022.

That second exit is where the hard lesson was learned - closing a deal meant chasing signatures from every shareholder, one by one.

"In an acquisition, time is your worst enemy. We're chasing everyone to sign the SPA and the shareholder agreement. The logistics of trying to follow up with everyone - for me, it's very hectic." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

By the time Zeid started raising for SPICE, he knew he didn’t want to repeat his last fundraising mistake. Angel capital would come in through SPVs, and the cap table would stay clean from day one.

A Clean Cap Table From Day One

At SPICE, Zeid consolidated dozens of angels into Zest SPVs - and expanded his investor base in the process.

SPICE ran its angel raise through Zest as two standard early-stage SPVs. Once the first vehicle closed, the team was able to easily bring in more investors by launching a new vehicle on the platform - a task that would have typically been time- and cost-prohibitive to do manually. 

The ease of setting up a vehicle on Zest changed who Zeid could raise from. Around 40 angel investors have come into SPICE through Zest SPVs, with each vehicle sitting as a single consolidated entry on the cap table. Grouping investors allowed SPICE to open the round to operators and strategic angels who add real value but write checks of varying sizes.

"You can get multiple people on board, and some of them added tremendous value as angel investors." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

With Zest, Zeid was able to:

• Group around 40 angel investors into SPVs, each sitting as one consolidated entry on the cap table
• Lower minimum tickets, expanding the round to value-add operators alongside larger investors
• Set streamlined governance, with voting rights that balance investor participation with the ability for Zeid to make decisions over day-to-day operations
• Run investor onboarding, document execution, and communications entirely within the platform
• Pay once per vehicle, rather than paying annual fees

"It's a one-time payment only. If I wanted to do an SPV myself, not with Zest, I would have to hire a lawyer and an agent, and then probably pay annual fees. A lot of logistics and housekeeping hassle would continue to happen." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

For SPICE’s investors, the experience has been seamless. Onboarding and KYC are embedded in the platform, while transaction documents and communications are easily accessible via the investor dashboard. 

"I'm sure it makes us look more organized. It's very neat and easy." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

Structuring a Sharia-Compliant Round

SPICE’s third vehicle was designed to solve a different type of problem for Zeid. 

The team wanted to raise a meaningful round of capital without having to choose between a high valuation and heavy dilution. Zeid split the round into two structures: a direct SAFE for investors joining on standard terms and a Murabaha agreement - a Sharia-compliant financing structure that SPICE executed with the support of Zest’s team. 

"We wanted to raise a substantial amount of money, but we didn’t want to raise at a high valuation or accept significant dilution. We also wanted something that is Sharia-compliant. To solve this, we decided to split the round into two different structures." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

Zest offered more than just software. By working closely with Zeid to operationalize the Murabaha structure, the team made an unconventional deal happen that most off-the-shelf SPV tools could not.

"We're very close to the team - I feel like I'm part of the team. We don't feel like an outsider dealing with a different company." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

Built for the Next Transaction

The cap table Zeid built at SPICE is designed for whatever comes next.

Every decision Zeid made, from grouping angels into SPVs to lowering the minimum ticket to structuring the Murabaha vehicle with Zest, traces back to a lesson from POSRocket: how you fundraise will determine the complexity of your next transaction.

With SPICE's early investors consolidated in SPVs, a future acquisition will involve a fraction of the signatures that POSRocket's exit required, and investors can enter or exit through secondaries without ever touching the company's register of members.

"If someone wants to exit or sell his shares, this can be done without the nightmare of signing shareholder agreements and changing the register of members. It's all done within the SPV. That's a huge flexibility for angel investors." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

With Zest, Zeid now has the infrastructure to raise, structure, and scale on his own terms. 

Insights From Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO of SPICE

Reflecting on his past fundraising journeys, Zeid offered advice for first-time founders preparing to pitch.

"Put together a target list of investors and give them scores - from the investors you really want on your cap table down to the least. Then start with the least favorite investors. Once you start pitching, the pitch changes all the time depending on the questions you get. If there are ten, the first five are where you practice. You are more ready when you go to the last five - you are ready with your story. And at the beginning, it is all about the story." - Zeid Husban, Co-founder & CEO, SPICE

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Planning your next raise? See how Zest SPVs can keep your cap table clean and your exit simple. Contact us.