MNT-Halan, Egypt’s leading fintech ecosystem, has secured a circa USD120 million investment by major global and regional growth investors: Apis Growth Fund II, Development Partners International (DPI), and Lorax Capital Partners.
In addition, the company has also attracted venture capital backing from Middle East Venture Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, and DisruptTech. This round of investment demonstrates confidence in the fintech opportunity in Egypt and further institutionalises the capitalisation table of MNT-Halan. Previous investors of MNT-Halan have included GB Capital, DPI, Algebra Ventures, Wamda, Nowaisi Capital, Unidelta, Egypt Ventures, Battery Road Digital Holdings, and Shaka VC.
Capitalising on MNT-Halan’s first mover advantage, proprietary and highly scalable tech capabilities and strong brand in Egypt, this funding endorses its strategy to drive further innovation in its technology, product development, scale to tens of millions of customers, and expand cross-border. The investment also recognises the scale and long-term potential of MNT-Halan, which has been granted micro, consumer and nano finance licenses from the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority, as well as the first independent electronic wallet license from the Central Bank of Egypt.
MNT-Halan has developed its scalable proprietary fintech ecosystem in-house, connecting customers, vendors and micro-enterprises through its consumer facing app, merchant app, Halan Neuron (distributed lending and payment processing software) and payment solutions (wallets and cards).
More than 70 per cent of the population of Egypt’s young and fast growing population of over 100 million is financially under-served and overlooked by traditional financial institutions, yet mobile penetration exceeds 90 per cent. MNT-Halan’s digital solutions, including lending, BNPL, e-commerce, payments, and on-demand logistics, support its mission to empower underserved communities, address inequality and female economic participation. With c.1 million monthly active users, MNT-Halan serves more than 4 million customers in Egypt, of which 3.1 million are financial clients and 1.8 million are borrowers. The company has disbursed more than USD1.7 billion of loans. Its monthly throughput exceeds US$100 million which has grown over 20x in the past five years.
Matteo Stefanel and Udayan Goyal, Managing Partners and Apis Partners Co-founders, say: “We are thrilled to be investing in MNT-Halan, which is our first investment in Egypt. Our belief is that they will be the leading player digitalising the unbanked and bringing financial services to millions of underserved customers in the country, and we look forward to partnering with them to extend their impressive growth trajectory. We believe Mounir Nakhla’s track record, combined with MNT-Halan’s tech team and operational expertise, provide the ideal opportunity to invest in Egypt’s fintech sector.”
DPI Partner Sofiane Lahmar says: “Since our partnership with Mounir and his team dating to 2018, MNT-Halan has rapidly evolved into a market-leading financial technology business, working to drive entrepreneurship and economic development in critically underserved markets. The company is well-positioned to benefit from Egypt and the region’s favourable demographics and rising adoption of digital technologies in its next growth phase. Our ADP III investment in MNT-Halan reaffirms our belief in the management team, and our commitment to the company and its long-term growth prospects, as we continue our focus on investing in high-growth, impact-driven companies from Africa’s fast growing middle class.”
