Participated · Equity · May 2025

Sylndr operates an integrated used-car marketplace and mobility platform in Egypt that combines direct buying and resale, digital auto loans, car servicing, and a dealer-to-consumer marketplace under a single mobile app. Its core products include Sylndr Swift (digital financing approvals in under 10 minutes, without lending on its own balance sheet), Sylndr Plus (inspections, maintenance, servicing), and Al-Ajans (third-party dealer listings with inspection and ownership-transfer support). The company has expanded from buying and refurbishing cars for resale to a multi-vertical business serving consumers and more than 1,000 dealers, with revenue now evenly split between direct-to-consumer sales and B2B dealer transactions. Sylndr declined to share absolute revenue or transaction volume, but said sales have increased nearly tenfold since 2022, revenue in Egyptian pounds rose 22x and by fivefold when adjusted to dollars; average sale price on the platform is $20,000–$25,000. Management expects financing and servicing verticals to contribute up to 60% of gross profit within two years and plans to deepen its presence in Egypt rather than expand abroad. Sylndr is a Cairo-based startup that acquires cars from individuals, refurbishes them and resells them with a seven-day money-back guarantee, warranty and plans for flexible financing. The company was founded in November 2021 by Omar El Defrawy and Amr Mazen and is currently pre-revenue and yet to launch publicly. Sylndr plans to open its seller listings first and begin selling to buyers in Q4 2022 or Q1 2023, with refurbishment occurring between those events. Management says it will pursue revenue from retail sales, auction houses, dealerships, B2B sales and potential ancillary streams such as interest from financing, insurance and roadside-assistance fees. The team is over 40 people and the founders plan to more than double headcount by year-end. Proceeds from the fundraise will be used to scale operations, technology infrastructure, grow inventory and build retail and non-retail customer channels.

Led · Series C · May 2025

MoneyFellows digitizes the traditional ROSCA model by letting users form or join savings “circles” through its app and matching savers and borrowers using behavioural data, credit scores, and income tiers. The company typically does not lend from its balance sheet, stepping in only when a circle has an unfilled slot; under 10% of slots are unfilled and only about 7–8% of active slots require the company to supply working capital. MoneyFellows has kept operations lean and says it has reached profitability in Egypt. Since launching in 2016, the platform has grown to over 8.5 million users (up from 4.5 million at the last funding milestone) and the average payout per user has increased from 23,000 EGP to 45,000 EGP. It recently launched a card product for payouts, repayments, and merchant spending, and plans to add investment, payroll, insurance, and remittance products. After nearly a decade refining the model, the company has partnered with over 350 local and regional entities, facilitated more than $50 million in investments, and plans to expand regionally starting with a Morocco launch by year-end. Money Fellows digitizes traditional money circles (ROSCAs), enabling users to join, form and participate in rotating savings groups via its app while applying credit assessments to broaden participant pools. The platform charges a one-time service fee (about 6% for early slots, decreasing for later slots) and generates additional revenue via B2B merchant partnerships and commissions. It sets aside reserves and follows a provisioning schedule to cover defaults and manage credit exposure across different ROSCA slots. The company reports over 4.5 million registered users, with roughly 7% monthly active users and an average payout ticket of about 23,000 EGP (~$1,100); it claims 8x year-over-year growth. Money Fellows also plans to expand its product mix — including buy now pay later, pension products and cards (aiming to earn interchange fees) — and to grow across B2C and B2B segments and into other African and Asian markets. MoneyFellows is a Cairo-based fintech platform that digitises informal rotating savings and credit associations (money circles) to help users manage group lending and savings. Its product includes salary automated deductions, fixed payout dates and a smart scoring system to assess users. The startup says it has over 150,000 active users verified by a user assessment algorithm. MoneyFellows was founded in 2016 by CEO Ahmed Wadi. The company plans to use new investment to expand operations across Egypt and into other African countries and to launch a slate of new products in the coming months. MoneyFellows offers a digital platform that automates and manages informal rotating savings and credit circles with features like salary automated deductions, fixed payout dates and a smart scoring system. Since launching it has grown to over 250,000 registered users and 65,000 monthly active users, with paying users showing 60% month-on-month growth. The company reports having generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and says over $5 million has circulated through the platform. Current product plans include a software release with new features and user-experience improvements and integration of multiple ewallets and direct debit options via banking partners. MoneyFellows also plans bill-payment and merchant-acceptance features to let users spend credit at merchants. The startup aims to expand across MENA (Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia) and into several African markets (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa) to increase financial inclusion for underserved populations.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2025

Khazna offers salary advances, payroll-backed credit, pension lending, unsecured loans to gig workers, bill payments, buy-now-pay-later, insurance and a rent-to-own product aimed at low- and middle-income workers. The company focused on payroll and pension-backed lending as its core product, which management says drove it to break even last month. Khazna has grown to over 500,000 users, with about 100,000 receiving their payroll through the platform, enabling embedded lending and insurance. Because it cannot accept customer deposits today, Khazna funds lending with wholesale debt in USD and EGP, which raises its cost of funds. The startup is working to secure a deposit-taking digital banking license in Egypt (targeting mid-2026) to lower funding costs and capture deposits. It also plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and to target 40–50% of business from that market within four years, leveraging large Egypt–Saudi remittance flows. Khazna is a Cairo-based financial super app targeting middle- and lower-income users with a suite of banking and non-financial services. Founded in 2019 by Omar Saleh, Ahmed Wagueeh, Fatma El Shenawy and Omar Salah, its entry product was an earned wage access service (Khazna HR) launched in 2020 that lets partner employers offer cash advances. The company has since added buy now, pay later, bill payments and a prepaid debit card; its BNPL is available in about 1,000 merchant stores. Khazna reports roughly 150,000 users across all products and employs a team of 170, with leadership drawn from WorldRemit, Uber, Jumia and Match Group. The startup is aligned with the Central Bank of Egypt’s financial inclusion and less-cash initiatives and plans to leverage CBE infrastructure such as the instant payment network. Khazna plans to launch additional products before year-end and aims to reach 1 million users by the end of 2022. Financially, the company has raised $38M in this Series A (debt and equity) and $47M in total since inception. Khazna provides convenient, effective and secure smartphone-based financial services. The company was founded in April last year by Omar Saleh, Ahmed Wagueeh, Fatimah El Shenawy, and Omar Salah. Its LinkedIn states the leadership team has over 50 years of combined global experience in finance, corporate strategy and technology. Last month Khazna announced an undisclosed seed investment led by Algebra Ventures and joined by Accion Venture Lab. Ventureburn/Menabytes report that Disruptech, a $25 million fintech fund, also invested a six-figure dollar amount in Khazna; Disruptech did not disclose exact investment sizes.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2024

FlapKap provides revenue-based and embedded financing to help SMEs scale inventory and digital advertising by offering instant funding and pay-later options. The platform ingests non-traditional data (payment gateways, social media, e‑commerce sites, bank accounts) and uses open banking and AI-powered models to underwrite and approve applicants, often within 48 hours. FlapKap targets offline and online SMEs that have limited access to traditional bank loans or venture capital. The company says it has doubled both quarterly originations and disbursements over the last two years. With the new funding it plans to deepen its UAE and Egypt operations and expand across the rest of the GCC and MENA, and to build trade‑finance solutions tailored for B2B companies. FlapKap was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, originally from Egypt. FlapKap is a revenue-based financing platform that provides capital to e-commerce and SaaS brands in the MENA region, enabling them to scale by repaying via a share of future revenues. The company finances expenditures such as inventory, advertising and marketing and recoups capital by adding a fixed fee that clients pay as a percentage of revenue over a set timeframe. Founded in 2022 by Ahmad Coucha and Khaled Nassef, with Sherif Bichara and Adel Hodroj on the founding team, FlapKap targets merchants with limited access to bank or venture financing. It has integrated AI-based insights and financial data analytics with Shopify, WooCommerce, Facebook and Google and says it signed tens of clients in Egypt and the UAE within six months. FlapKap reports 300% quarter-over-quarter growth and claims to have helped customers achieve more than an 85% increase in revenue and over a 70% increase in net profits within a few months. The company plans to use new capital to increase capacity across MENA and consolidate its position as a leading revenue-based financing provider in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. FlapKap is a startup founded in 2021 by entrepreneurs with experience in e-commerce, media, and digital banking. The company offers AI-based intelligence to help online businesses optimize advertising spend and a revenue-based variable payment product tied to that ad spend. FlapKap positions itself as a regionalized counterpart to Clearco and Wayflyer, tailored for MEA markets. It launched and completed a $1.2 million funding round in March 2022 led by A15. The company is operating in the UAE and Egypt and plans expansion to Saudi Arabia and broader MEA growth and rapid merchant acquisition. FlapKap aims to support long-term growth for digitally native merchants without imposing liquidity restraints.

Participated · Series B · Sep 2024

Paymob offers an omnichannel payment gateway supporting over 50 payment methods, including wallets, cards, BNPL and QR, and serves more than 350,000 merchants across five MENA countries. The company has expanded from Egypt and Pakistan into Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE while building products such as an SMB app, embedded checkouts, lending and advanced settlements. Paymob has focused on cross-selling additional services to increase average revenue per merchant and partners with platforms like Shopify and Tabby to improve margins. It reported a $5 billion total payment volume and 120 million transactions in 2020, though updated TPV and transaction figures were not disclosed. The fintech became profitable in Egypt in Q2 of this year, with revenues in Egypt growing sixfold since mid-2022, while it remains unprofitable in its other markets. Paymob employs just over 1,000 people and continues pushing expansion and product development to capture faster-growing digital payment adoption in the Gulf. Paymob provides tech-driven payment channels aimed at reducing costs for SME merchants. The company’s product focuses on enabling more efficient, technology-enabled payments to improve economic opportunities for owners and employees of small businesses. British International Investment says its funding will support Paymob’s growth and the scaling of its payment solutions. Paymob is domiciled in the Netherlands and the investment delivers impact in Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. BII committed $5m in April 2022 as an equity investment to support the company’s expansion. An Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) was agreed with Paymob, focusing on updating HR policies and developing a safeguarding policy. Paymob offers a payment gateway with APIs for online merchants, a POS solution for in‑store card acceptance, and payment links for mobile‑wallet transactions. The platform processes a large share of Egypt’s mobile‑wallet volume — the company says it handles 85% of such transactions — and claims to be the country’s largest payment facilitator. Paymob serves more than 35,000 local and international merchants and reported over $5 billion in total payment volume; monthly revenue grew more than 5x last year. The company is present in Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan and Palestine and plans regional expansion with an imminent entry into Saudi Arabia, then wider Sub‑Saharan rollouts after focusing on the GCC. Post‑raise, Paymob intends to expand its merchant network, meet increasing demand and enhance its product offerings.