MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Khazna of Egypt Raises $38m in Series A Round Led by Quona, 3 More Fintechs Join in Netting Investments from Nclude Fund

Nclude Fund, which was launched in 2022 primarily to focus on financial technology (fintech) in Egypt, has invested unspecified amounts of funding in four startups: (1) Khazna, a financial services app targeting the underbanked; (2) Lucky, an app offering consumer loans and loyalty rewards; (3) Mozare3, which helps small-scale farmers and food processors find funding; and (4) Paymob, an online payment platform that operates in the Middle East and Africa. Khazna also raised funding from Egypt-based Algebra Ventures, Saudi Arabia-based Khwarizmi Ventures and others in a Series A funding round led by Accion Quona Capital Inclusion Fund, which focuses on fintech in emerging markets. The funding round, which totaled USD 38 million, included an unspecified amount of debt from Lendable, a provider of funding, technology and investment services to fintechs and investors.

Founded in 2020, Khazna has approximately 150,000 active users, and its buy-now-pay-later service is available in 1,000 stores in Egypt as of 2022. The firm also provides a service through which wage earners may access cash advances.

The Accion Quona Inclusion Fund is managed by Quona Capital, which has offices in India and the US. US-based NGO Accion is the fund’s anchor investor.

Nclude is managed by UAE-based Global Ventures, which has offices in five cities in the Middle East and Africa.

By Hasnat Aslam and Adhya Singh, Research Associates

Sources and Additional Resources

Banque Misr press release
https://www.banquemisr.com/en/aboutus/press/Pages/investment-in-new-fintech-fund.aspx

TechCrunch article
https://techcrunch-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techcrunch.com/2022/03/31/egyptian-financial-super-app-khazna-raises-38m-from-quona-capital-and-lendable/amp/

Khazna homepage
https://www.khazna.app/

Khazna app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.project.imperialcreation.khaznaproject

Lucky homepage
https://luckyegypt.com/

Mozare3 homepage
https://www.mozare3.net/

Paymob homepage
https://paymob.com/

Accion homepage
https://www.accion.org/

Algebra Ventures homepage
https://www.algebraventures.com/