EGYPT – Egypt’s largest national banks; Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, and Banque du Caire, have partnered with Global Ventures to launch fintech-focused investment fund Nclude, following approval by the Central Bank of Egypt.
The fund is an implementation of the country’s strategic vision to support young innovators, with Nclude by Global Ventures to focus on accelerating fintech innovation and driving financial inclusion.
The initial US$85 million investment is led by Banque Misr as an anchor investor, with the National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire as strategic investors.
Other investors include eFinance Investment Group and Egyptian Banks Company, while 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, financial “super app” Khazna, consumer FinTech app Lucky, agri-FinTech platform Mozare3, and Paymob, a 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, which will provide development capabilities to help create fintech start-ups that address local and regional opportunities.
“This step is an implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to support innovative youth in the fintech and fintech-enabled sectors, as well as CBE’s fintech and innovation strategy,” said Tarek Amer, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt.
“It 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.”
The fund will achieve many gains for the Egyptian economy by creating the ideal environment for young fintech talent to develop innovative solutions that will help deliver banking and financial services to all segments of society in a more efficient and affordable manner.
The move will help reach out to the unbanked and underbanked population, which makes the majority at 67% of the population in the North African country.
Egypt’s huge unbanked, young population and cash-dominated economy offer strong opportunities for local and regional fintech and fintech-enabled companies who continue to witness exponential growth in the market.
The agreement looks forward to bringing all stakeholders in the ecosystem to continue to fuel this growth and transform Egypt into a regional center of excellence for fintech innovation.
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