Participated · Series A · Jun 2026

Blnk offers point-of-sale consumer financing through a merchant network of more than 3,000 stores across categories such as electronics, home appliances, automotive services, and furniture, enabling consumers to access loans with minimal documentation in as little as three minutes and repayment terms of 6 to 36 months. The company uses proprietary algorithms and machine learning models to perform localized, real-time credit risk assessments and price loans based on predicted default probabilities. Since its seed round in November 2022, Blnk has onboarded over one million customers, grown a loan portfolio exceeding EGP 1 billion, and reported reaching profitability in 2025 driven by a 173% year-on-year revenue increase. Around 75% of its users were previously unbanked or underbanked, and women make up more than 35% of its customer base. Blnk plans to expand its product suite, enhance its technology, explore geographic expansion, and launch a credit card program that allows customers to use credit limits outside its merchant network. The company leverages both equity and local debt capital to scale operations and broaden access to consumer finance in Egypt.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2025

Djamo is a mobile-first neobank founded in 2020 to expand financial access across French-speaking Africa, initially focusing on Ivory Coast and recently expanding into Senegal. The app combines the accessibility of mobile money with deeper banking features such as cards, peer-to-peer transfers, savings vaults, investment products (enabled by a fintech-issued brokerage license), and salary-linked accounts. Djamo also serves small businesses with bulk payments, payment links and QR code tools, and counts roughly 10,000 merchants among its users. The company reports over 1 million customers, that more than 55% of its base are previously unbanked users, a 250-person team, and that it has processed more than $4.5 billion in transactions since launch. Revenue has grown 5x since 2022, and 25% of users pay for a premium tier; Djamo generates income from merchant fees and premium subscriptions and is exploring lending and interest-bearing savings as additional revenue streams. The startup is pursuing licenses to offer interest-bearing accounts and credit and uses a hybrid model of app services plus offline agents to reach harder-to-activate customers. Djamo is a fintech building a financial super app for underbanked consumers in Francophone Africa, offering a Visa-powered debit card, virtual accounts, a salary receipt product and an autosaving feature. Launched last year by Régis Bamba and Hassan Bourgi, the platform enables interoperability between banks and mobile money wallets, allowing transfers between bank accounts and mobile money. The app has registered over 500,000 customers (up from 90,000 in Feb 2021) and has processed over $400 million since inception. Djamo reports revenue growth of 20%–25% month-on-month and operates a freemium pricing model with $2 and $3.50 monthly premium tiers that it says are ~80% cheaper than competing bank accounts in Ivory Coast. The company says 60% of customers had never used a Visa debit card before joining and that growth has been largely organic via word of mouth. With the new funding Djamo plans to expand into two other Francophone African countries before the end of next year and to add investments and lending products. Djamo builds a mobile-first financial super app aimed at expanding affordable banking access across Francophone Africa, with a focus on better front-end experiences and faster customer service. The product offers Visa debit cards with a zero-fee tier and a premium plan around $4 per month for higher limits. Founders Hassan Bourgi and Régis Bamba designed tailored layers to serve different user needs and to enable payments for services like Amazon, Alibaba and Netflix. Djamo claims about 90,000 registered users and processes over 50,000 transactions monthly. The company raised a $350,000 pre-seed in June 2019 from private investors and later received backing from Y Combinator. Operationally, Djamo routes between payment providers to keep services running and built an in-house delivery app and agent network to deliver cards quickly. After YC, Djamo is set to participate in Visa’s Fintech Fast Track program to leverage Visa’s network for new payment experiences.

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 · Jul 2024

Cartona is an asset-light B2B e-commerce marketplace that connects FMCG suppliers and wholesalers with retailers, offering technology, fulfillment, and embedded finance to improve supply-chain efficiency. The platform serves FMCG and a growing HORECA vertical while partnering with local suppliers rather than displacing them. Cartona reported annualized GMV of about EGP 10 billion (~$210M), up from EGP 2.3 billion (~$120M) in 2022, and now supports more than 180,000 retailers, 4,500 suppliers across 17 Egyptian cities, and over 40,000 SKUs. HORECA currently represents ~7% of GMV but yields double the blended take rates and average order value versus FMCG; the company expects HORECA to reach 15% of GMV by year-end. Cartona is very close to reaching full EBITDA profitability and has improved unit economics while shifting most merchant credit to local-currency financing. Embedded finance now constitutes more than 20% of Cartona's GMV (up from 2–3% in 2022), supporting inventory financing and financial inclusion for small merchants. The company plans to deepen operations in Egypt, expand the HORECA vertical and other product lines, and may pursue regional expansion, including Saudi Arabia. Cartona operates an asset-light B2B e-commerce marketplace that lets buyers order inventory from a network of curated sellers via an app with promotion tools and a market-insights dashboard. The company integrates technical connections with large manufacturers and warehouses and embeds BNPL into the order flow, allowing repayment with each product shipment. Cartona currently lends from its balance sheet but expects to secure credit lines and venture debt from partners by January next year. Management says the business is pursuing sustainable growth and positive unit economics in every city as it scales toward profitability. Operational metrics disclosed include 60,000+ merchants, over 1 million transactions, an annualized gross merchandise value of EGP 2.3 billion (~$120M), 1,500+ distributors and wholesalers, and relationships with roughly 200 FMCG companies. The startup launched in 2020 and has expanded from three cities to 11, with plans to cover all of Egypt's governorates and explore new verticals beyond FMCG. Founded in August 2020 and based in Cairo, Cartona operates an asset-light marketplace that connects retailers (buyers) with FMCG companies, distributors and wholesalers (sellers) through a single app. The platform provides real-time price comparisons, delivery-time visibility, an inventory and ordering system, and analytics to help suppliers optimize go-to-market execution. Cartona also offers embedded finance and access to credit for retailers and suppliers. Its revenue model includes commissions on orders, charging suppliers for advertising to merchants, and selling market insights on buyer behavior, price competition and market share. The company reports over 30,000 merchants on the platform, more than 400,000 orders processed, an annualized gross merchandise value of EGP 1 billion (~$64 million), and partnerships with over 1,000 distributors/wholesalers and 100 FMCG companies offering 10,000+ products. Cartona is expanding its team and operations beyond Cairo and Alexandria and is considering horizontal and vertical product expansion into pharmaceuticals, electronics and fashion.