Egypt

The 3 Largest National Egyptian Banks Launch $85 million Fintech MEA Fund

Egypt’s largest national banks – Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, and Banque du Caire – and Global Ventures, a leading MEA-focused venture capital firm – announce the launch of Nclude by Global Ventures, following approval by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

This bold and unprecedented step is an implementation of the country’s strategic vision to support young innovators who will build the Egyptian Economy of the future, Nclude by Global Ventures will focus on accelerating Fintech Innovation and driving Financial Inclusion.

The initial amount equivalent to $85 million investment in the Fund is led by Banque Misr as an Anchor Investor and National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire as Strategic Investors. Other investors include, eFinance Investment Group and Egyptian Banks Company. The Fund is also set to attract further investment from prominent regional and international investors.

The Fund has already made its first investments in four companies. These are:

Khazna: A financial Super App that offers convenient, technology-driven financial solutions to underserved consumer

Lucky: Egypt’s leading consumer fintech app, offering instalments, offers, cashback rewards and credit to more than 8M users.

Mozare3: An agri-fintech solution for small farmers

Paymob: A leading digital payment service provider

In addition to investing in existing start-ups, the fund will be supported by Shipyard Technology Ventures – a global venture builder – who are bringing their world-class development capabilities to the Egyptian market to help create Fintech start-ups that address local and regional opportunities.

Tarek Amer

Mr. Tarek Amer, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, said:

“This step is an implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to support innovative youth in Fintech and Fintech-enabled sector, as well as CBE’s FinTech & Innovation Strategy which aims to create an enabling environment for the FinTech industry and adopt more innovative FinTech solutions capable of delivering banking and financial services to all segments of society more easily and at less cost, as a crucial step to transform Egypt into a regional center for the FinTech industry in the Arab World and Africa.

The aforementioned strategy is based on key integrated pillars, which are represented in supporting FinTech talents and young entrepreneurs, providing a stimulating legislative and regulatory environment for the FinTech industry, in a way that achieves a balance between financial stability and unleashing innovation. In addition to meeting the market Fintech demand areas and adoption of new FinTech solutions, and increasing investments directed to FinTech & FinTech-enabled solutions which is considered as one of the top priority pillars.”