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EMBARGOED until 15 February 2021 at 12 PM Dubai Time / 9 AM Lagos Time
Left to right: Founders Mustafa Eid (CTO), Nader Abdelrazik (CEO), and Anisha Sekar (CPO)
MoneyHash, an Egyptian fintech startup based in the US building the Middle East and Africa’s first Super-API for payment orchestration and revenue operations, emerged from beta to launch its platform across MEA. They also announced raising $3 million in pre-seed funding. With an ambitious plan to become the AWS of payments, MoneyHash empowers businesses in emerging markets to streamline their payment stack and optimize pay-in/pay-out operations without breaking the bank.
Early-stage companies often start with one or two providers for payment processing and payout. But as they grow, they have to tack on provider after provider to meet their growing needs.
“Each expansion can take an in-house tech team 3-10 weeks, not to mention the ongoing demands of reporting reconciliation, operational inefficiencies, and technical vulnerabilities,” says Mustafa Eid, co-founder and CTO at MoneyHash. “And that’s a challenge we are passionate to solve.”
“When it comes to emerging markets, and particularly the Middle East & Africa, these challenges are magnified,” adds Nader Abdelrazik, co-founder and CEO. “The region is highly fragmented due to the lack of economic integration between countries in MEA, which means that the countries’ payment methods, currencies, and regulations operate in isolation. By building a custom infrastructure with a single integration and a central dashboard, we provide a platform for companies to grow and address this complexity without depleting their resources.”
The company has been in beta since early 2021, with 17 companies using their sandbox environment to test integration and tools. The team has conducted extensive user research with over 150 companies, engaged multiple providers across the region, and built a comprehensive suite of tools.
With one connection point, MoneyHash users can connect with services across the revenue stack, from pay-in/pay-out providers across MEA to value-added service providers such as KYC, fraud detection, and loyalty programs.
In addition to the Super-API, MoneyHash offers customizable services for a variety of businesses: a unified checkout experience for e-commerce, centralized reporting for business intelligence, and micro-services such as transaction routing, subscription management, and invoicing.
With MoneyHash, companies can quickly and easily build a payment stack that fits their unique needs.
The pre-seed round has an impressive ensemble of investors led by UAE’s venture capital firm COTU Ventures, and the participation of MENA fintech fund VentureSouq and European fund VentureFriends. Other participating funds include Nuwa Capital, The Continent Venture Partners, First Check Africa, Fox Ventures, Kepple Africa Ventures and Lofty Capital Inc.
A global group of angel investors also participated in the round, including NerdWallet’s Tim Chen and Jake Gibson, Belvo’s Oriol Tintore, and regional operators such as Jad Antoun (Huspy), Feras Jalbout (Baraka), and Hussein Elkheshen (Sakneen). Some were moved to invest after their companies participated in MoneyHash’s beta program, a reflection of their enthusiasm about MoneyHash’s team, product, and vision.
“When I first heard of MoneyHash, I was very excited by the idea. I saw huge potential in having an aggregator for all different payment gateways, which would both reduce engineering time and increase visibility on transactions. Sakneen saw these benefits firsthand when we enrolled in the MoneyHash private beta, and I believe that their tools will continue to help us scale and expand in the future. I am excited for what the future holds, both as a customer and as an angel investor.” says Hussein Elkheshen, CTO of Sakneen.
This round is an extension to an undisclosed six-figure raise announced in 2021, which was also led by COTU Ventures with the participation of Venture Platform (Nigeria) and repeat investors Kepple Africa Ventures and Lofty Capital Inc.
While massive global companies like Airbnb and Uber create dedicated teams to design and manage payment systems, and companies like Spreedly and Zooz sprung up to serve the US and Europe, emerging markets have remained underserved.
Joshua Kaplan, partner at Wilson Sonsini and the former COO of Checkout.com, and a member of MoneyHash’s advisory board, explains: “The financial technology sector, and digital payments in particular, is a foundational piece of the infrastructure on which the digital economy in the region is being built. MoneyHash is building an important framework to accelerate the development and growth potential of SMBs and enterprises in the region by automating their access to digital payment methods and adjacent services.”
MoneyHash will use the funds to grow its team and extend the capabilities of the Super-API to serve businesses across MEA with a simple, comprehensive payment solution.