MoneyHash, an Egyptian FinTech startup that has developed Africa’s first Super-API for payment orchestration and revenue operations, has acquired $3 million in pre-seed funding to expand its platform across the Middle East and Africa.
The pre-seed round was led by UAE-based venture capital firm COTU Ventures and included MENA fintech fund VentureSouq and European fund VentureFriends. Nuwa Capital, The Continent Venture Partners, First Check Africa, Fox Ventures, Kepple Africa Ventures, and Lofty Capital Inc. are also participating funds.
Additionally, the round included a global network of angel investors, including Tim Chen and Jake Gibson of NerdWallet, Oriol Tintore of Belvo, and regional operators such as Jad Antoun (Huspy), Feras Jalbout (Baraka), and Hussein Elkheshen (Sakneen).
MoneyHash enables emerging market firms to streamline their payment stack and optimize pay-in/pay-out processes without breaking the bank, with the objective of becoming the Amazon Web Services of payments.
Since early 2021, the firm has been in beta, with 17 companies testing integration and technologies in its sandbox environment.
The team conducted significant user research with over 150 businesses, partnered with different providers in the region, and developed a robust suite of solutions.
“It began in late 2020. I spent some time speaking with multiple companies about the payment challenges they face, and I realized that when large companies, whether regional or international, attempt to enter emerging markets, they face massive fragmentation in terms of payment methods, currencies, economies, and regulation, and they must make incremental efforts in each market to connect to the payment system there. This is purely a technical issue.
As a result of this funding, MoneyHash plans to strengthen its workforce and expand its capabilities of the Super-API so that it may better serve businesses in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
Read more on Tech Gist Africa:
Nawy, an Egyptian proptech startup, has received $5 million in seed funding
Stitch, a South African fintech firm, has raised $21 million in a Series A funding round
Swvl, an Egyptian mobility company, has raised an additional $21.5 million in PIPE funding