Hollydesk, Egypt’s first and only expense management platform, announced a $ 1 million venture debt funding to enable more small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) manage and track their everyday spending. The funds will be utilised to broaden Hollydesk’s capabilities and reach out to additional businesses in need of effective expenditure management solutions.

“We are excited to support Hollydesk in their mission to help SMBs in Egypt manage their daily expenses,” said the venture debt provider. “Hollydesk’s innovative approach to expense management has already helped many companies save time and money, and we believe they have the potential to make an even bigger impact as they expand their offerings.”

A Look At What The Startup Does

Mahmoud Moussa founded Hollydesk in 2020 to provide a set of solutions that allow businesses to effortlessly track and manage costs, automate approval procedures, and produce reports to evaluate spending trends.
Hollydesk has already assisted hundreds of businesses in saving time, reducing fraud, and better managing their spending. Companies utilising Hollydesk spent EGP130 million through the platform alone in 2022.

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“Our mission is to help small and medium-sized businesses focus on what they do best by streamlining their expense management processes. With this new funding, we can expand our reach and help even more companies across Egypt,” said Mahmoud Moussa, CEO of Hollydesk.

Hollydesk’s platform is intended to be user-friendly and simple to use, especially for non-technologists. It has functions like receipt scanning and real-time spending tracking. Businesses may save time and decrease the risk of mistake or fraud in their expense reporting by utilising Hollydesk.

Hollydesk expense management Hollydesk expense management

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard

Hollydesk, a financial technology startup based in Cairo, has raised $325,000 in a pre-seed funding round.

Hollydesk is the first financial technology firm in Egypt to be funded in the field of managing SMEs spending and accounts, thanks to angel investor Faisal Abdel Salam and other investors who lead the funding round.

“We seek to use the new funding to develop technologies for our solutions, assign new competencies within the team, and launch other services that will be announced soon with major Egyptian banks, which is in line with the Egyptian government’s plans to achieve financial inclusion, especially for workers within small and medium companies,” Mahmoud Moussa, CEO of Hollydesk, who also stated that the funding would help Hollydesk to scale and pursue further the horizontal expansion of its offerings.

The startup further intends to expand its services and solutions in new markets in the region.

Why The Investors Invested

Faisal Abdul Salam, the lead investor in the latest round of investment said:

“We are very happy to participate in driving the growth of the company, especially as it provides digital solutions that fill a gap that many companies in the Middle East and North Africa suffer from, especially small and medium-sized companies.”

Abdul Salam added: “One of the most important reasons for the success of startups is the extent of harmony and integration of the work team, as well as the strength of their belief in the idea of ​​their project, which we felt from the Hollydesk team, and encouraged us to invest and support them.”

A Look At What Hollydesk Does

Hollydesk is a technology startup that helps small and medium-sized businesses monitor and control their daily spending anywhere in real time. It was founded in June of 2021. All petty cash and custody requests can be made through the Hollydesk application, which connects all members of the system inside the organization “stores — financial management — human resources — managers.”

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The application allows members of the system to communicate for instant approval, and the finance team approves settlement operations in a matter of minutes with a few simple clicks through the application.

Employees may collect their money from any bank, digital wallet, or pos machine for electronic payment firms like Fawry, and they can also register suppliers, attach invoices, receive approvals, and pay the provider from within the app.

“We see a great opportunity in the field of digitizing the part of following up on companies’ expenses, and this is only the beginning, and we aspire to what is greater than that by providing other solutions such as financing and other solutions to help these companies achieve greater growth for this sector,” Moussa said.

Hollydesk products essentially assist businesses in more effectively managing their resources.

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According to Moussa, the company has been able to grow its solutions and services to encompass more than 3,000 clients from a variety of industries, including building, construction, and delivery, as well as start-ups and non-governmental organizations.

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 write