YCombinator’s Startup School has granted $15000 to Egypt-based Dayra. The startup participated in the ten-week online Startup School by YCombinator (YC), a globally recognized leading accelerator. It is now the first startup to receive this grant from the Middle East and North Africa region.
Dayra is a Cairo-based fintech platform. It was founded early 2019 by Hesham Ghandour, Mohammed Ennabah, and Abdelrahman Rizq. Its mobile app allows users to instantly transfer money in less than 20 seconds to any bank account in Egypt.
It also gives users the leverage to operate several bank accounts on the platform. Dayra makes money by charging a nominal fee less than the usual bank charges for interbank transfers.
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The free course comprises of video lessons by YCombinator’s partners and networks. On completion, YCombinator selects startups to be rewarded with a $15000 grant. In the 2019 school session, about 10000 founders graduated from the Startup School.
YCombinator announced the winners on Friday; most of which were from the US. Dayra was one of over 40000 participants from over 13000 companies that initially applied.
Hesham Ghandour, the founder and CEO of Dayra said, “The YC grant has given us a nice boost of confidence. The most important thing, however, is that users want what we are building. That remains our biggest motivation.”
He also said that the company will continue to focus on improving the user experience of its app. Dayra will soon start fundraising to support its growth plans.