<\/p>\n
Nexta, an Egyptian startup that plans to launch its banking app in the coming months, has secured a $5 million investment from eFinance Group, a state-owned provider of digital payments solutions. This news follows the $2 million pre-seed round Nexta announced this March, which Egyptian early-stage VC Disruptech led.<\/p>\n
Last year, Nexta obtained a provisional license from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and will look to fulfil further requirements and meet certain obligations before obtaining the CBE\u2019s final approval for the agent banking license it needs to launch its services in the country. The Nexta app will have a partner bank to handle settlements and act as an intermediary between itself and the CBE\u2013however, it\u2019ll power its cards and tech.<\/p>\n
Founded by Ahmed Hisham in 2021, Nexta wants to disrupt the Egyptian fintech scene with its \u201cnext-generation banking\u201d app and card. According to the company, the Nexta card will aggregate users\u2019 existing payment cards, allowing more effortless money transfer, and tracking spending, among other features.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to build next-generation banking and provide a seamless user experience to the consumer. We want to make easy and instant onboarding, card aggregation, linking all of your cards and several methods of cash-in features,\u201d the co-founder and CEO told in an interview, adding that the company plans to make revenue from interchange fees. \u201cThat\u2019s the first thing we are going in with the soft launch, and budgeting and tracking spending. And then we\u2019ll add more features every month or quarter more features to solve the pinpoints of Egyptians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Egypt is among the highest consumer spending markets across Africa. It is also one of the region\u2019s most cash-reliant markets, meaning there\u2019s an immense opportunity for fintechs to bring consumers spending online by launching card services. Egyptians looking for fresh alternatives that do not include telco-powered mobile wallets and digital channels from legacy banks can turn to Nexta and Telda, the Sequoia-backed fintech that announced a $20 million seed round last week.<\/p>\n
Unlike Telda, which allowed signups from its yet-to-be-launched apps (it didn\u2019t bode well with its over 30,000 users after waiting almost a year to use the app), Nexta has limited its waitlist to signups from its website, engaging them through content marketing in preparation for its launch. Hisham declined to reveal how many subscribers are on the company\u2019s waitlist.<\/p>\n
Like Sabbah, in an interview with last week, Hisham agrees that both consumer-facing fintech apps ultimately compete with cash. \u201cI believe that the competition is very healthy and thanks to Telda for the awareness they made to consumers and taking the first step. The Egyptian market needs not only Telda and Nexta but four or five other players like us,\u201d the CEO added.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Ibrahim Sarhan, eFinance\u2019s chairman and CEO, said the investment in Nexta is in line with Egypt\u2019s digital transformation plan and vision for 2030, including the Group\u2019s plan to maximize its assets and investments by investing in the fintech space. \u201cNexta is among the promising companies financed by the Group within several targeted investments,\u201d Sahar said. \u201cIt\u2019s worth noting that the Group took part in establishing Nclude\u2014an investment fund\u2014to invest in emerging fintech companies, thus improving the current and future direction of fintech in Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hisham, who describes this investment as a strategic partnership rather than a funding round, said Nexta is glad to have e-finance on board as the demand for financial services in Egypt increases. \u201cWe believe there is a huge opportunity for us to offer a differentiated and outstanding experience to different users in such a promising market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Proceeds from the investment will help Nexta prepare for its launch, hire talents and invest in its technology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nexta, an Egyptian startup that plans to launch its banking app in the coming months, has secured a $5 million investment from eFinance Group, a state-owned provider of digital payments solutions. This news follows the $2 million pre-seed round Nexta announced this March, which Egyptian early-stage VC Disruptech led. Last year, Nexta obtained a provisional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1228206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}