Raseedi - Afrikan Heroes

Egyptian Fintech Startup, Raseedi, Raises $850k In pre-Series A Round

December 1, 2021

Raseedi, an Egyptian fintech startup, said that it has raised $850,000 in a Pre-Series A round from Samurai incubate, a European investor, and all current investors (500 Global, EFG-EV and Falak Startups)

“Since our inception, we have focused on the masses offering them a better way to communicate cheaper. So, once an app becomes the user’s daily trusted dialer, it becomes so much more; the network or circle they trust for how they connect to their community of contacts, friends and family. Users are now calling cheaper, paying telecom/ utility bills and taking advance telecom credit but imagine if later people can communicate for FREE within this community, pay peers/ contacts and borrow from peers or even get guaranteed by members of their community to receive cash loans. Maybe sooner than later, stay tuned,” said Ahmed Atalla co-founder and CEO of Raseedi.

Raseedi raises $850,000 in pre-Series A — *Image credits: Raseedi*

Raseedi has generated considerable traction since its founding. Over 10 million monthly visits and calls have been made through the Raseedi dialer app

“We strongly believe that Raseedi’s unique approach of providing the app to the unbanked in Egypt will not only allow them to use their phone easier and more affordable, but also open a gate to access to credit. The company is led by three experienced founders who have a great conviction to solve the pain points of services provided by existing telcos, and already built a talented team to execute their mission. We are happy to be on board of their journey to improve African people’s accessibility to the internet,” Samurai Incubate said in a statement.
Read also : South African Fintech Firm, Crossfin, Acquired For $94.3m

A Look At What The Startup Does

Raseedi is a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) software that helps users make cheaper calls and provides data-driven saving recommendations. It was founded in 2018 by Ahmed Atalla and Samuel Samy. The app receives over 10 million monthly visits.

Raseedi is attempting a novel strategy to bringing millions of underbanked Egyptians into the fintech industry. The App’s entry point was assisting users make cheaper calls and giving them with data-driven saving advice in a category where community and savings are important. It wasn’t difficult to introduce clients to payments and hassle-free advance credit with an average of 120 visits per user per month for the typical user and over 1,000 visits per user per month for the top users. With purely organic App communication and upselling, payment volume increased by 5 times in just one month, and about 5,000 advance credit amounts were given out on the spot in just a few months, all based on a smart inhouse rating system based on the obtained telecom data.

“We’ve always been a super lean tech startup, we only spend on people and tech never on assets or operations that’s why our goal is to create this daily product that relies completely on technology with zero dependency on any onground operation. From communication to payments to receiving instant advance credit, everything is done through an app. It’s been going great for us with 13,000 reviews of 4.3 stars on the playstore, yet the bigger challenge comes with our next scaling milestone, 100 million monthly visits from 1m monthly active users,” Samuel Samy, Raseedi’s co-founder and COO and head of product said.

Egyptian Raseedi Egyptian Raseedi

Startups In Algeria Now To Register International Patents, Designs For Free

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

Egypt’s Startup Raseedi Helps Mobile Users Grow Savings Culture

February 26, 2021

Raseedi-Founders Ahmed Atalla and Samuel Samy

Mobile users in Egypt are in for a better way to start saving money using the platform launched by fintech startup Raseedi, a self-described “social fintech” solution that claims to be building the largest network of underbanked customers who want to communicate, save money and find easy financing without a formal credit history. The fintech was established in 2018 by Ahmed Atalla and Samuel Samy and they developed a mobile application that helps users make calls at the cheapest cost per minute and provides them with data driven saving tips and financing products.

Aimed at dual SIM users, it helps them optimise their telecom spend via its dialer app, which uses a smart algorithm to cross-match user consumption with suitable packages on both lines, and automates calls from the cheapest SIM. Atalla said while Raseedi’s competitors were looking at building convenience-driven fintech solutions for a niche, the startup was building a value-driven solution for the masses.

“Unlike other platforms, Raseedi is a people-first business and not service-first one. We started with solving three main needs the masses had in common – wanting to communicate at a cheap cost, wanting to save on food, medical and telecoms spend, and finding financing without having a credit history,” he said.

“Our strength is in the number of people using our dialer app to make their every day calls and our saving tips to make their every day spending decisions.”

The number is high. Engagement on the Raseedi app grew by 18 times in the last six months, to three million phone calls per month.

“Our app’s top users open our app 200 times a month and the super users 1,000 times,” Atalla said. Raseedi makes money from claiming a percentage of any services offered through its platform.This impressive uptake spurred a US$400,000 seed funding round late last year, led by 500 Startups and joined by Falak Startups and EFG-EV. Now, the goal is expansion into Africa and the Middle East.

“Our aim is to reach countries with large masses in the underbanked segment,” Atalla said.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Egypt Startup Raseedi Raises $400,000 In Seed Funding For Telecom Spend Optimisation

December 3, 2019

From series of funding raised this year, it is safe to say that any Egyptian startup, whatever the sector it operates in, has more chances of raising funds from investors than any other startups anywhere else in Africa. Raseedi, the Cairo-based startup has become the latest to join the train. The startup which helps dual SIM users (in Egypt) optimize their telecom spend through its mobile app, has raised $400,000 in a seed funding round.

“We’re expanding and increasing our engineering and commercial teams to develop the “The O-Wallet” or optimization wallet. Within a couple of months, users will be able to recharge and save up to 30% of their credit spend by recharging directly through Raseedi credit. Raseedi will automatically allocate users’ spend among both SIM cards and activate the bundles instantly,” Samuel Samy, Raseedi’s co-founder and COO said.

Here Is The Deal

This round of funding was led by 500 Startups with participation from Falak Startups and EFG-EV Fintech, the startup announced in a statement.
The startup will use the latest investment to fully automate the experience it offers by allowing users to recharge Raseedi credit instead of recharging two separate SIM cards.

“By allowing users to directly recharge Raseedi credit instead of recharging two separate SIM cards, Raseedi will tap into the 100 million EGP daily recharges market.”

The startup, in a statement, said that its app is addressing the pain-point that affects a large part of population Egyptians who are dual SIM users.
The cost of a cross-operator minute is up to five more expensive than a minute used on the same network which is why such a large number of Egyptians have resorted to simultaneously use two SIM cards to optimize their spend, Raseedi’s statement explained.

“But with over 500 different packages being offered in the market by telecom operators, it is extremely difficult to subscribe to the most suitable packages for both lines/SIMs,” it added.

Raseedi helps therefore with its dialer app that has been downloaded over 200,000 times since its launch ten months ago.
Raseedi doesn’t have any immediate expansion plans but is eyeing some markets in Asia and Africa for expansion:

“Duality is huge in many parts of Africa and Asia, with Nigeria and Malaysia exceeding duality percentage of the Egyptian Market. Since we’re a completely digital experience with hardly any on-ground operations, scaling to other markets will be a mere language and market dynamic adaption,” said Ahmed.

On Why The Investors Invested

According to Sharif El-Badawi, Managing Partner at 500 Startups MENA:

“We are pleased to support Ahmed and Samuel as they establish and grow Raseedi. Since the launch in January 2019, Raseedi has reached more than 200k downloads, which portrays the need for spend optimization and saving. As lead investors, we are confident that their niche product and the competencies of the team will position Raseedi as a leading player in the telecom and payments industry.”

For the CEO EFGEV Fintech Mahmoud El-Zohairy:

“Having closely monitored Raseedi’s growth since they first joined Falak Startups, it was an easy investment decision; a great team with clear vision and intent with a unique product that serves the masses. We are really delighted to be part of their growth journey. This is only the beginning for Raseedi and we look forward to the continuation of our very promising cooperation and synergies on various fronts.”

For Farah Ehsan — Head of Programs & Marketing EFGEV Fintech:

“It’s rare for a startup to provide genuine value to the entire ecosystem in which it operates, with Raseedi quickly becoming an irreplaceable service for millions of Egyptians. Raseedi has ambitions to become the regional leader in optimization services, and we are delighted to be on board to help them achieve this goal.”

A Look At What Raseedi Does

Founded last year by Ahmed Atalla and Samuel Samy, Raseedi developed a phone dialer app for dual SIM users on Android that uses a smart algorithm to cross-match user consumption with most suitable packages on both lines and automate calls from the cheapest SIM for each call.

In simple words, with Raseedi installed, any dual SIM user will be able to make the cheapest possible calls (from the options that are available), without having to think and choose the options.

According to Ahmed Atalla, co-founder and CEO of Raseedi, the startup is currently integrating with they key cash collection aggregators to prepare for launch of Raseedi Credit as they aim to offer users a normal recharge experience by adding Raseedi as the fifth recharge option after four operators on POS at every KIOSK and top-up outlet.

Raseedi eventually also wants to expand its offering to food (apparently deliveries), utilities and ride-hailing with its ‘Optimization Wallet’. Raseedi’s initial success (at least in terms of number of downloads) suggests that users in Egypt are looking for such solutions.

Ahmed did not share a timeline but said:

“We want to first perfect the telecom experience and solidify user trust before getting into other sectors. If the user relies on Raseedi for measuring, comparing, paying and saving for telecom, unlocking other categories and shifting to a complete Optimization Wallet that manages all their finances will be a natural evolution to our product.”

The Cairo-based startup currently makes money by charging the users a small portion of their savings and a small cut on every top-up from aggregators.

Commenting on Raseedi’s launch and early success, Ahmed, explained,

“40 million Egyptians are walking around with two SIM cards to optimize telecom spend. We decided to offer them a higher level of optimization that can save them up to 30 percent of their monthly spend with our smart algorithm suggestions. In the first week, we clocked 5,000 downloads with minimal marketing spend and that’s when we knew the market is in need for an optimization app. We shortly left our jobs, joined Falak Startups accelerator and everything flew from there. We’re now on a new mission to optimize spend beyond telecom.”

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world