Egypt

Fintech

Nov 5, 2026

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1 min read

Egypt’s Enza raises $6M seed extension to expand African payments business

4DX Ventures leads seed extension alongside British International Investment, with original backers Quona Capital and Algebra Ventures investing again.

Jamie Lane

Interview

Nov 4, 2026

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9 min read

The human face of the AI-native startup

Y Combinator-backed Veeza AI founder Aly Moursy is orchestrating dozens of AI agents, while using memes, personality and a conviction that "being nice is a moat" to earn trust, starting with a visa problem he knows firsthand from travelling on an Egyptian passport.

Jamie Lane

Public Markets

Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan pares IPO gains after heavily subscribed listing

Oct 23, 2026

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2 min read

Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan pares IPO gains after heavily subscribed listing

Shares ended their first three trading sessions about 2% above the offer price, after an EGP 7.84 billion share sale drew strong institutional and retail demand.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

Endeavor Catalyst closes oversubscribed $320M fifth fund, its largest yet

Oct 8, 2026

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2 min read

Endeavor Catalyst closes oversubscribed $320M fifth fund, its largest yet

The oversubscribed fund counts Jordan’s ISSF and Careem founders among its backers, with Replit already in the portfolio and total assets under management now above $850 million.

Jamie Lane

Startups

Replit acquires AI analytics startup Atta

Oct 2, 2026

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1 min read

Replit acquires AI analytics startup Atta

Omar Shaik cold-emailed Amjad Masad two years ago asking him to invest. Masad and CTO Michele Catasta saw a demo and wrote a cheque the same day.

Jamie Lane

Public Markets

Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan plans October IPO of its local business, offering up to 25% stake

Oct 1, 2026

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2 min read

Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan plans October IPO of its local business, offering up to 25% stake

The sale will cover only MNT-Halan’s Egyptian operations, with its international businesses staying private. Parent company MNT Investments plans to inject up to EGP 4 billion into the local business after the IPO.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Paymob raises $35M pre-Series C co-led by Mubadala and EBRD as GCC nears half of revenue

Sep 21, 2026

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2 min read

Paymob raises $35M pre-Series C co-led by Mubadala and EBRD as GCC nears half of revenue

The Egyptian payments company has grown GCC revenue sevenfold in 18 months, with Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala joining its cap table as Paymob increasingly shifts its growth towards the Gulf.

Jamie Lane

News

Egypt-born Kareem Amin’s Clay raises $115M Series D at $7.1B valuation

Sep 11, 2026

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2 min read

Egypt-born Kareem Amin’s Clay raises $115M Series D at $7.1B valuation

The New York GTM software company has more than doubled its valuation since its CapitalG-led Series C last year, with ARR now on pace to reach about $200 million this quarter.

Jamie Lane

Public Markets

Swvl secures $13M investment led by Sawiris-backed Coefficient as it targets US expansion

Aug 25, 2026

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2 min read

Swvl secures $13M investment led by Sawiris-backed Coefficient as it targets US expansion

The financing will support the company’s US expansion and comes four months after it resolved its latest Nasdaq listing deficiency.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

Saudi's Khwarizmi Ventures partially exits Bosta at around 3x

Aug 21, 2026

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1 min read

Saudi's Khwarizmi Ventures partially exits Bosta at around 3x

The Saudi venture firm, which first backed Bosta at Series A and invested in two subsequent rounds, has partially sold its stake in the Egyptian logistics company at a net multiple of about 3x.

Jamie Lane

News

Exits MENA acquires Avanz Capital Egypt, adding fund management to its advisory platform

Aug 21, 2026

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1 min read

Exits MENA acquires Avanz Capital Egypt, adding fund management to its advisory platform

The regulated asset manager will be rebranded Exits Manara and launch a second fund aimed at Egyptian exporters.

Jamie Lane

News

Egypt's Fincart raises $2.8M seed to take its e-commerce operations platform across MENA and Africa

Jul 27, 2026

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1 min read

Egypt's Fincart raises $2.8M seed to take its e-commerce operations platform across MENA and Africa

The oversubscribed round is co-led by Launch Africa and Antler MENAP, backing a platform that connects merchants to more than 40 couriers and lends against their sales data.

Jamie Lane

News

Vercel acquires Stakpak, the Egyptian-born DevOps agent startup, as it builds out agentic infrastructure

Jul 16, 2026

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1 min read

Vercel acquires Stakpak, the Egyptian-born DevOps agent startup, as it builds out agentic infrastructure

The deal takes a team that bootstrapped out of Cairo for two years, built one of the most popular open-source DevOps agents, and raised a $500K pre-seed just last year into the $9.3 billion company behind Next.js and v0.

Jamie Lane

Startups

Amazon brings 20-minute delivery to Egypt, opening a new front in the country's quick commerce race

Jul 10, 2026

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2 min read

Amazon brings 20-minute delivery to Egypt, opening a new front in the country's quick commerce race

Amazon Now has gone live in select areas of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria and the North Coast, making Egypt the third market in the region to get the service after the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Jamie Lane

Climatetech

Catalyst Fund reaches $30M for debut pan-African climate fund

Jul 3, 2026

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2 min read

Catalyst Fund reaches $30M for debut pan-African climate fund

The second close brings IFC, Shell Foundation, Trafigura Foundation and Speedinvest onto the register of a fund targeting $40 million to back 40 climate resilience startups, a portfolio that already includes Egypt's Bekia, NoorNation and VAIS alongside Morocco's Sand to Green.

Jamie Lane

Public Markets

MNT-Halan weighs Cairo IPO of its Egyptian business at up to $1bn, working with Citi and EFG Hermes

Jun 26, 2026

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2 min read

MNT-Halan weighs Cairo IPO of its Egyptian business at up to $1bn, working with Citi and EFG Hermes

The listing, which could come as soon as this year, would cover only MNT-Halan's Egypt operations and value them at $900 million to $1 billion.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Egypt's Thndr receives initial approval for Saudi brokerage licence, targets Q1 2027 launch

Jun 12, 2026

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2 min read

Egypt's Thndr receives initial approval for Saudi brokerage licence, targets Q1 2027 launch

The Saudi push comes as the EGX ranked Thndr the largest of its 120 brokerages by value traded in the first four months of 2026, with a 12.9% market share and $1 billion in assets under custody across its products.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Egypt's Blnk raises $37.1M in equity and debt to expand point-of-sale consumer financing

Jun 11, 2026

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1 min read

Egypt's Blnk raises $37.1M in equity and debt to expand point-of-sale consumer financing

The package comprises a $12.5 million Series A led by Algebra Ventures and $24.6 million in local debt facilities, and follows the company reaching profitability in 2025 on the back of a 173% year-on-year revenue increase.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Egypt's MNT-Halan hits $1.4B valuation as Al Ahly Capital leads new round, putting the National Bank of Egypt on the cap table

Jun 11, 2026

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1 min read

Egypt's MNT-Halan hits $1.4B valuation as Al Ahly Capital leads new round, putting the National Bank of Egypt on the cap table

Founded in 2018 by Mounir Nakhla and Ahmed Mohsen, MNT-Halan offers consumer and business lending, payments, e-wallets, savings, investments and e-commerce services, all running on Neuron, its proprietary core banking software.

Jamie Lane

Startups

Exclusive: Egyptian grocery delivery startup Breadfast cuts 58 tech staff months after $50M raise

May 12, 2026

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2 min read

Exclusive: Egyptian grocery delivery startup Breadfast cuts 58 tech staff months after $50M raise

The cuts come 12 weeks after backing from Mubadala, the Olayan family, Y Combinator and the IFC.

Jamie Lane

Startups

Egyptian cybersecurity startup Raspire joins Y Combinator with no-code runtime protection platform

Apr 17, 2026

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1 min read

Egyptian cybersecurity startup Raspire joins Y Combinator with no-code runtime protection platform

Raspire's platform allows engineering teams to add runtime protection to their applications without requiring complex integrations, specialised security teams or changes that slow down release cycles.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Egypt's Lucky raises $23m Series B to scale consumer credit and expand into North Africa

Apr 7, 2026

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3 min read

Egypt's Lucky raises $23m Series B to scale consumer credit and expand into North Africa

The new capital will fund expansion of its credit product suite, entry into select North African markets and infrastructure investment.

Jamie Lane

Startups

Egyptian-American founder Will Ahmed's Whoop raises $575m at $10.1bn valuation with QIA, Mubadala and 2PointZero all participating

Mar 31, 2026

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4 min read

Egyptian-American founder Will Ahmed's Whoop raises $575m at $10.1bn valuation with QIA, Mubadala and 2PointZero all participating

Whoop now has over 2.5 million members globally, was cash flow positive in 2025 and doubled bookings year on year to a $1.1 billion run rate.

Jamie Lane

Sudan

Mar 26, 2026

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4 min read

Scalvy, founded by Egyptian and Sudanese engineers, raises $13.9m Series A co-led by Silicon Badia to solve AI's power bottleneck

The company serves over 350 enterprise clients and has processed more than $2 billion in transaction volume across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Jamie Lane

Morocco

Speedinvest launches dedicated Africa fund with €40m EIB anchor for fintech and mobile-first startups

Mar 20, 2026

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5 min read

Speedinvest launches dedicated Africa fund with €40m EIB anchor for fintech and mobile-first startups

The EIB's commitment is structured against a maximum fund size of €200 million under the bank's project terms, though Speedinvest has not disclosed a final fundraising target for the vehicle.

Jamie Lane