MoneyHash, an Egyptian fintech startup based in the United States that is developing the Middle East and Africa’s first Super-API for payment orchestration and revenue operations, has officially launched its platform across the Middle East and Africa. They also revealed that they had raised $3 million in pre-seed capital.
The pre-seed round attracted a strong group of investors, including COTU Ventures, a venture capital firm based in the United Arab Emirates, as well as 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 among the other funds involved.
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.
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This round follows an undisclosed six-figure raise announced in 2021, which was also managed by COTU Ventures and included Venture Platform (Nigeria), as well as returning investors Kepple Africa Ventures and Lofty Capital Inc.
“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.”
MoneyHash plans to use the funding to expand its workforce and expand the capabilities of the Super-API in order to provide a simple, comprehensive payment solution to businesses across MEA.
Why The Investors Invested
A good number of the investors invested as a result of the inspiration they drew from MoneyHash’s beta program, demonstrating their passion for the company’s team, product, and ambition. Since early 2021, the firm has been in beta, with 17 companies testing integration and technologies in its sandbox environment. The team did thorough user research with over 150 businesses, enlisted several service providers from around the region, and developed a comprehensive toolkit.
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“MoneyHash is led by three remarkable founders with deep knowledge of payments and acumen for product-led execution. They are attracting a great team of talent, and after their impressive beta run, their product is ready for prime time. We are excited to be part of their journey,” Amir Farha, the founder of COTU Ventures, said.
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.”
“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.
A Look At What MoneyHash Does
MoneyHash was formed by three co-founders in late 2020: Egyptian Nader Abdelrazik, Egyptian Mustafa Eid, and Anisha Sekar (American). They have a combined 30 years of expertise and have worked for 11 businesses, as well as a long list of employers and educational institutions, including Microsoft, UpWork, NerdWallet, UC Berkeley, SigFig, and Brown University.
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MoneyHash is a feature-rich solution with a Super-API that allows for an open infrastructure to be created with just one integration. This integration enables businesses to expand their stack and improve their operations by enabling them to do the following:
- Consolidation: integrating or removing a provider is now a few clicks away instead of months of development work.
- Unified checkout: companies can embed MoneyHash checkout to dynamically localise methods, currencies, and experience.
- Smart routing: establishing rules for an optimal transaction route and higher authorisation rates.
- Secure storage: a PCI-compliant vault for storing customer and card information.
- Micro-services: allowing businesses to stitch together the features necessary for their unique business needs.
- Seamless reporting: streamlining reconciliation and generating sophisticated intelligence thanks to a central dashboard for all transaction reports.
“We are crafting a comprehensive revenue solution built for flexibility and scaling. With a custom payment stack powered by a single API integration, businesses throughout MEA can instantly access the providers and products they need to grow. We increase speed to market and save months of effort upfront, and with a complete view of the stack, we provide insights, automations, and smart routing to save time and money in the long term. Our mission is to build an efficient, secure, comprehensive solution that helps — rather than hinders — growing businesses.” said Anisha Sekar, co-founder and CPO of MoneyHash
MoneyHash has been a fully remote team since its inception, with 15 individuals based in the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, and Europe. The team is looking for mid-level and senior software developers right now.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer