FinTech MNT-Halan Announces $400 Million Funding Round
Egypt’s MNT-Halan has raised $400 million at a valuation of over $1 billion.
The funding was announced by Cairo-based FinTech on Monday (1 February). The largest portion of the fresh capital was from Chimera Abu Dhabi, which has invested more than $200 million in exchange for over 20% of the company, MNT-Halan said.
On top of Chimera’s equity investment, the company also announced two securitizations totaling $140 million.
Finally, the firm said it is in “advanced stages with leading international investors to raise $60 million in seed capital.” While MNT-Halan did not disclose who the international investors were, the International Finance Corporation revealed last week (January 26) that it will invest up to $40 million in the company.
Formed by the merger of startup company Halan and micro-lending platform MNT investments in 2021, the combined company has since dropped its travel business to focus on financial services, including lending to small and micro businesses, payments, consumer finance and e-commerce.
In Monday’s statement, the company said “MNT-Halan was created to digitally bank the unbanked and replace cash with electronic solutions.” It added that the firm serves over 5 million customers in Egypt, of which 3.5 million are financial customers and over 2 million are borrowers.
While MNT-Halan is one of the better capitalized firms tackling the challenges of financial exclusion in Egypt, it is not the only one that sees the digitization of payments as key to the task.
For example, dopay is trying to empower unbanked workers in Egypt by issuing prepaid cards that can be used as a cashless payroll solution by businesses.
MNT-Halan’s founder and CEO expressed enthusiasm at the funding news.
“I am excited about what lies ahead as we continue to grow both organically and inorganically by providing cutting-edge financial products and services locally and internationally to empower the underserved,” said Mounir Nakhla.
Seif Fikry, CEO of Chimera Abu Dhabi, added: “We are thrilled to be part of Egypt’s biggest FinTech success story. MNT-Halan’s upward trajectory and momentum reflects the management team’s realization of its extraordinary vision to transform a high-touch business by seamlessly adding a unique proprietary technology platform while increasing product depth for the target customer segment.”
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