Connect Money, an Egyptian banking-as-a-service fintech company focused on embedded finance services, has closed a seed funding round worth $8 million to help it scale operations across Africa.
The round was co-led by Egypt-based VCs:
- DisrupTech Ventures
- Algebra Ventures and
- Lorax Capital Partners
with participation from:
- One Stop Capital, and
- MDP
Consequently, the young fintech is now plotting growth within and outside Egypt, including in markets like Morocco and Kenya.
Launched in early 2024, Connect Money provides a comprehensive white-label card issuing platform that enables businesses to provide their customers with debit and credit cards without the need to develop fintech infrastructure or obtain regulatory licensing.
“This significant seed investment underscores our hyper-growth potential as we strive to eliminate existing pain points for businesses aiming to become financially enabled,” said Ayman Essawy, Co-Founder and CEO of Connect Money.
Connect Money has already had impressive stats since its launch in 2024, including:
- 300K issued cards
- $2.8 million in transactions
- $3 billion in transaction value
- 20K+ marketplace partners
Some of its merchant partners so far include:
- Adidas
- Amazon
- Booking.com
- Burger King
- KFC
- McDonalds
- Jumia
- Chili’s
- Pizza Hut
- SteigenBerger Hotels & Resots
etc.
According to Essawy, Connect Money has many use cases in various spaces, including agriculture where, for instance, supply chain companies can provide white-label cards and become banks for farmers.
“Basically, the whole value proposition sits at connecting those businesses to cash users. So we are talking about embedded finance as the core market,” he said.
The startup joins a handful of fintechs in the nascent BaaS space in Africa, including Nigeria’s Anchor and Kenya’s Pezesha which are making financial services easily accessible to the masses by enabling businesses to provide tailor-made financial services to their consumers.
“We have seen this in Amazon with the payment services and in many other digital platforms. We believe that even traditional businesses are capable of banking their customers and increasing consumer stickiness, to eventually become real banks. This is what we are trying to build; a one-stop shop for traditional and digital businesses so that they don’t have to build the infrastructure or invest millions in CapEx.”
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Globally, projections show that businesses will over the next decade keep tapping BaaS platforms to launch new financial services, grow their revenues and improve customer experience and retention. The increased adoption will drive the BaaS market value to $22.6 billion by 2032, sustained by a 19.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to a recent report by Allied Market Research.
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