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Egyptian Fintech Startup NowPay Joins Y Combinator, Secures New Funding

March 15, 2021

NowPay, a financial wellbeing network for workers based in Cairo, has joined Y Combinator and raised new funding in a Pre-Series A round. Along with another Egyptian fintech, Dayra, it is part of Y Combinator’s ongoing Winter 2021 (YC W21) batch.

“At YC, we help talented founders from anywhere in the world access the advice, network, and funding that Silicon Valley has to offer. With NowPay, we see dedicated founders tackling the huge problem of financial wellness in a region of the world that needs more tech investment. It was a clear decision to fund them,” Brad Flora, Group Partner at YC and a startup angel investor in San Francisco, said on NowPay’s inclusion in the accelerator.

Here Is What You Need To Know

Global Ventures, Beco Capital, Endure Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Abderahman ElSewedy are among the investors in NowPay’s bridge round. The deal’s value was not revealed. Last year, the company raised $2.1 million in a seed round.

The new funding will further assist the fintech startup towards its expansion into international markets.

Why The Investors Invested

Dubai-based Global Ventures has actively been investing in the African startup ecosystem. The VC has invested in Kenya’s Ilara Health, Nigeria’s Helium Health, Egypt’s Paymob, among others.

Beco Capital, also based in Dubai, has previously invested in NowPay. The venture capital firm has equally invested in North Africa’s leading startups such as Egypt’s healthtech Vezeeta, mobility startup SWVL, among others. Its investment in NowPay further cements its belief in the startup. It has actively been investing since 2017.

Based in Egypt, recently launched Foundation Ventures participated in NowPay’s $2.1m fundraise last year. Its latest investment in the startup further comfirms its belief in the startup’s future.

Abderahman ElSewedy is an angel investor and a director at Elsewedy Electric, based in Cairo.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded by Mostafa Ashour and Ahmed Sabry, NowPay launched the financial wellness platform in 2019 to enable corporates to offer salary advances to their employees. They’ve recently also added Gehan Fathi, who previously worked as Managing Director at EFG (and joined this round as an angel) and Mahmoud ElHosseiny who managed Egypt sales for Fortune 500 company Stanley-Black Decker to their executive team.

The employees of companies that partner with NowPay can request their salary (or a part of it) at any time of the month through its mobile app.

The account has to be validated by the employer before it can be used to request advances. Once the account is approved, they can also see the details of their salary and how much are they eligible to request as advance. The mobile app also enables users to manage and track their savings, expenses, and offers them financial recommendations. NowPay’s website says that its solution is Shariah-compliant. For employers, it is free. The employees, however, are charged a fee every time they use it.

Mostafa Ashour, the co-founder and CEO of NowPay who previously led the innovation teams at Microsoft Research said that their solution is currently being used by over 70 entities which includes a mix of publicly listed companies, multinationals, and startups. Some of those companies are Domty, MNHD, Sodic, Axa, Trella, Elmenus, and Wuzzuf.

The solution offered by NowPay helps employers improve employee happiness, productivity, and corporate loyalty, without any changes in their cash flow as the money is offered by NowPay. For employers, it is pretty much business as usual. They are only supposed to deduct the advance amount and fee from the salary at the end of the month (or whenever they pay the salaries) and pay it to NowPay directly.

NowPay claims to have managed over $200 million in salaries and serves clients like Sodic, Axa, ITWorx, Vezeeta, KarmSolar, and many more.

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

NowPay Y Combinator NowPay Y Combinator

Newly Funded Egyptian Fintech Startup, NowPay, Relies On Traditional Bank To Fund Its Product Model

March 8, 2021

Even though Egyptian startup, NowPay, has raised more than $2 million from investors so far, it would not be relying on the funds to make its product work fully. To that effect, the startup has signed a partnership deal with Export Development Bank of Egypt for a credit facility to fund its current salary advances product and to cover adding more products.

*Gehan Fathi, Head of Financial Partnerships at NowPay*

“We believe that the cooperation with Export Development Bank of Egypt will assist in growing our current business model in addition to offering more innovative fintech products to users,” said Gehan Fathi, Head of Financial Partnerships at NowPay.

The latest partnership deal is one of the earliest in Egypt between a traditional bank and a fintech company. In 2020, National Bank of Egypt announced the purchase of a 24% stake in fintech startup Aman. Fawry and Banque du Caire have equally established a joint remittance service, while Banque Misr has partnered with Masary, a digital payments app.

With this, the line between fintechs and banks is getting thinner in the North African country. Nigeria, Africa’s fintech hotbed, recently saw a new regulation from its central bank mandating fintech startups to get the approval of the apex bank before partnering with any bank in Nigeria as regards the startup’s products and services.

Banks and Fintech — *How are banks approaching towards ‘Fintech’.* *Source: FinExtra*

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded by Mostafa Ashour and Ahmed Sabry, NowPay launched the financial wellness platform in 2019 to enable corporates to offer salary advances to their employees. They’ve recently also added Gehan Fathi, who previously worked as Managing Director at EFG (and joined this round as an angel) and Mahmoud ElHosseiny who managed Egypt sales for Fortune 500 company Stanley-Black Decker to their executive team.

The employees of companies that partner with NowPay can request their salary (or a part of it) at any time of the month through its mobile app.

The account has to be validated by the employer before it can be used to request advances. Once the account is approved, they can also see the details of their salary and how much are they eligible to request as advance. The mobile app also enables users to manage and track their savings, expenses, and offers them financial recommendations. NowPay’s website says that its solution is Shariah-compliant. For employers, it is free. The employees, however, are charged a fee every time they use it.

Mostafa Ashour, the co-founder and CEO of NowPay who previously led the innovation teams at Microsoft Research said that their solution is currently being used by over 70 entities which includes a mix of publicly listed companies, multinationals, and startups. Some of those companies are Domty, MNHD, Sodic, Axa, Trella, Elmenus, and Wuzzuf.

The solution offered by NowPay helps employers improve employee happiness, productivity, and corporate loyalty, without any changes in their cash flow as the money is offered by NowPay. For employers, it is pretty much business as usual. They are only supposed to deduct the advance amount and fee from the salary at the end of the month (or whenever they pay the salaries) and pay it to NowPay directly.

So far, the startup has raised $2.7 million from investors, including from leading investors such as Beco Capital, 500 Startups (MENA), Plug and Play, 4Dx Ventures, MSA Capital, EFG-EV Fintech, Ebikar; as well as angels including Quirky Ventures, Gehan Fathi and Rolaco.

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

NowPay Bank NowPay Bank NowPay Bank

Egyptian Fintech Startup NowPay Raises $2.1 million Seed From Top Investors

October 12, 2020

Cairo-based fintech NowPay has secured $2.1 million in a seed round co-led by Foundation Ventures and Endure Capital, with the participation of investors from the United States, United Arab Emirates, China, and Egypt, the startup announced in a statement.

Mostafa Ashour, the co-founder and CEO of NowPay

“During the peak of Covid-19 lockdowns, we are proud to have well-known and eminent investors back us, signaling trust in our business concept and our team,” said co-founder, Mostafa Ashou. “Saving, spending, budgeting, and borrowing, are our four pillars of financial wellness. Financial stress plays a major role as a top distraction for employees. NowPay bridges that gap and provides several benefits for employers that choose to proactively address this area of employee wellness,”

“Within a very short period, we are delighted to have managed salaries in excess of US$100 million with a 60 percent month-over-month growth rate,” he added.

Here Is What You Need To Know

Beco Capital, 500 Startups (MENA), Plug and Play, 4Dx Ventures, MSA Capital, EFG-EV Fintech, and Ebikar, also joined the round. Some angels including Quirky Ventures, Gehan Fathi and Rolaco also invested in the round. The investment brings NowPay’s total raise to date to $2.7 million. It had raised $600,000 (also in seed round) in 2019.
NowPay plans to use the latest funds to ‘deepen the capabilities’ of its platform, expand its team, and potentially launch in some other markets (in the region and beyond).
The startup did not share the details about the markets it is eyeing for expansion. There are some other players that also offering similar services in the region, including FlexxPay and Bayzat.

Why The Investors Invested

Ziyad Hamdy, Managing Partner at Foundation Ventures, a newly established Cairo-based VC, commenting on the investment, said:

“There is an asymmetry between expenses and income, which puts a lot of stress on employee’s morale, and hampers productivity. We are thrilled to join NowPay’s incredible team on this journey of empowering employees with the happiness and wellness that financial stability provides.”

“Not every day you have both clear product-market fit and founders market fit. That’s what they have at NowPay. Just attend any business meeting with the team and you will know it immediately,” Tarek Fahim, Managing Partner at Endure Capital, said.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded by Mostafa Ashour and Ahmed Sabry, NowPay launched the financial wellness platform in 2019 to enable corporates to offer salary advances to their employees. They’ve recently also added Gehan Fathi, who previously worked as Managing Director at EFG (and joined this round as an angel) and Mahmoud ElHosseiny who managed Egypt sales for Fortune 500 company Stanley-Black Decker to their executive team.
The employees of companies that partner with NowPay can request their salary (or a part of it) at any time of the month through its mobile app.
The account has to be validated by the employer before it can be used to request advances. Once the account is approved, they can also see the details of their salary and how much are they eligible to request as advance. The mobile app also enables users to manage and track their savings, expenses, and offers them financial recommendations. NowPay’s website says that its solution is Shariah-compliant. For employers, it is free. The employees, however, are charged a fee every time they use it.
Mostafa Ashour, the co-founder and CEO of NowPay who previously led the innovation teams at Microsoft Research said that their solution is currently being used by over 70 entities which includes a mix of publicly listed companies, multinationals, and startups. Some of those companies are Domty, MNHD, Sodic, Axa, Trella, Elmenus, and Wuzzuf.
The solution offered by NowPay helps employers improve employee happiness, productivity, and corporate loyalty, without any changes in their cash flow as the money is offered by NowPay. For employers, it is pretty much business as usual. They are only supposed to deduct the advance amount and fee from the salary at the end of the month (or whenever they pay the salaries) and pay it to NowPay directly.

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