Telda - Afrikan Heroes

Jack Dorsey’s Block, Sequoia Back Egypt’s Telda In $20M Seed Round

October 13, 2022

A bright light for North Africa’s digital sector in the face of the present global recession is the Egypt-based financial firm Telda, which just received $20 million in seed investment from investors including Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc.

Existing investors Global Founders Capital led the fundraising round, which also included participation from Sequoia Capital, a venture capital company based in Silicon Valley, and new investment Block Inc., which was formerly known as Square Inc. According to a statement issued by the company, Telda intends to put the cash to use by broadening its product portfolio and entering new markets.

A Look At What Telda Does

Founded in 2021 by Swvl’s co-founder and former CTO Ahmed Sabbah and Youssef Sholqamy, Telda provides a vast array of functions, including the free issuing of Mastercard-powered prepaid cards. The prepaid cards provide a completely integrated payment experience without the requirement for a bank account, as they may be used for online purchases, in-store purchases, and cash withdrawals from any ATM in the world. In addition, users will be able to send and receive money instantaneously and for free from any other Telda user, as well as monitor their accounts and spending through the control and insights tools that make users aware of their spending habits and in complete control of what their card can accomplish.

Telda is a financial brand designed for Millennials and Generation Z, who are actively seeking smart and simple solutions to manage and monitor their costs without visiting a bank to open an account.

This action is in line with the nation’s aim to promote financial inclusion, allowing all citizens to access modern financial services that meet their needs and eventually resulting in sustainable economic growth for both individuals and the nation.

“In Egypt dealing with money is still a complicated matter; making it easy and straightforward will have a large impact not just on the economy but also the society as a whole,” said Youssef Sholqamy, Telda’s co-founder, and a former engineer in Uber Technologies Inc.’s infrastructure team.

Telda Egypt Telda Egypt

Sequoia Capital Pours $5 million Pre-seed Into Egyptian Digital Bank Telda

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. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh

Egyptian Fintech Telda Gets Final License To Issue Prepaid Card

July 20, 2022

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has granted Telda the final approval to launch its prepaid card and application on the Egyptian market, in an effort to achieve the CBE’s financial inclusion and digital transformation objectives.

CEO and Co-founder of Telda, Ahmed Sabbah

“We are very happy to have receive the final license from the Central Bank of Egypt to launch the Telda app and card, as we strive to participate in the country’s transformation into a digital economy and help accomplish the Central Bank’s vision to achieve financial inclusion through constantly offering smart and fast payment solutions,” CEO and Co-founder of Telda, Ahmed Sabbah, said. “Telda is an entirely new financial experience that empowers the youth to indulge into using more advanced technological solutions. We aim to change the way people think and feel about money by providing a better and more efficient banking experience as an alternative to the traditional payment and transfer methods,” Sabbah added.

A Look At What Telda Does

Founded in 2021 by Swvl’s co-founder and former CTO Ahmed Sabbah and Youssef Sholqamy, Telda provides a vast array of functions, including the free issuing of Mastercard-powered prepaid cards. The prepaid cards provide a completely integrated payment experience without the requirement for a bank account, as they may be used for online purchases, in-store purchases, and cash withdrawals from any ATM in the world. In addition, users will be able to send and receive money instantaneously and for free from any other Telda user, as well as monitor their accounts and spending through the control and insights tools that make users aware of their spending habits and in complete control of what their card can accomplish.

Telda is a financial brand designed for Millennials and Generation Z, who are actively seeking smart and simple solutions to manage and monitor their costs without visiting a bank to open an account.

This action is in line with the nation’s aim to promote financial inclusion, allowing all citizens to access modern financial services that meet their needs and eventually resulting in sustainable economic growth for both individuals and the nation.

Telda card license Telda card license

Sequoia Capital Pours $5 million Pre-seed Into Egyptian Digital Bank Telda

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. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh

Sequoia Capital Pours $5 million Pre-seed Into Egyptian Digital Bank Telda

May 17, 2021

Swvl’s co-founder and former CTO Ahmed Sabbah

The game for who becomes Egypt’s next category king after Fawry is on, and in a fierce fashion. Barely a month after Flextock, a Cairo-based fintech raised $3.75 million and claimed Egypt’s largest preseed, Telda, an Egyptian digital bank aimed at Generation Z has displaced it. The startup has not only secured a $5m pre-seed round of funding, but has got the backing of some of the world’s leading investors, including that of the California-based venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital.

Although Sequoia Capital led the round, the investment also saw the participation of US venture capital firms, Global Founders Capital and Class 5 Global.

The investment is Sequoia Capital’s first in the Middle East and North Africa. It is also the first investment in any Egyptian startup for Global Founders Capital and Class 5 Global. Last year, Sequoia Capital participated in Cameroonian startup, Healthlane’s $2.4m fundraising.

The startup will use the funding to launch its new products and grow the business.

Why The Investors Invested

Investment into Telda started when Swvl’s co-founder and former CTO Ahmed Sabbah sent a cold message on LinkedIn to one of Sequoia Capital’s partners. What followed was a series of meetings with several people at the firm and the subsequent request for a term sheet a few weeks later.

The American VC had previously led a $2 million seed round in Brazil’s Nubank, a neobank with close to 40 million customers across Latin America and a market capitalization of $25 billion. David Vélez, a former Sequoia associate, founded Nubank.

“Both countries boast a huge, young, talented, and tech-savvy population with a strong appetite to innovate,” said George Robson, a Sequoia partner who led the investment in Telda. “We are delighted to partner with Telda and earmark our first investment in the area,” he said in a statement.

One remarkable attraction for the investors in this round is the team at Telda. Sabbah, the co-founder and CEO was formerly of SWVL, one of Africa’s most funded startups and whose team had particularly been praised by investors as executing quickly. This factor, apart from Telda’s mission, particularly drew in San Francisco-based VC firm Class 5 Global.

“Money has become a medium of self-expression — a form of identity — not solely a store of value. Telda has done a remarkable job of embedding their culture and values in the product, in both functionality and design. No hidden fees, no maintenance charges, no paperwork nor stress, coupled with an elegant design to enable a self-service experience,” said Youcef Oudjidane, Managing Partner of Class 5 Global.
Read also:Nigerian Fintech Startup BFREE Secures Seed Funding Round

Similar point was re-echoed by Roel Janssen, a partner at Global Founders Capital.

“We are highly impressed by Sabbah and Sholqamy and love their vision for building the region’s leading digital banking app and we are proud to be part of their journey. It is GFC’s first investment in Egypt and we see that Egypt has the potential to become an important hub in the global tech ecosystem,” Janssen said.

But perhaps, the greatest point of attraction for the investors lies in the traction the startup has garnered so far. Barely launched last month (April), the startup already has over 30,000 sign-ups and over 17,000 people who have requested the card via the app.

Telda also said it was the first company in Egypt to obtain a license under the latest Banking Agents regulations from Egypt’s Central Bank. The license enables them to digitally issue cards and onboard customers, most similar to what South Africa’s TymeBank, which recently announced it had acquired 3 million customers in just two years, is doing. Sabbah said it is now only a matter of weeks before the cards are shipped to users on the waitlist.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Telda was founded a little over a month ago by Swvl’s co-founder and former CTO Ahmed Sabbah and Youssef Sholqamy, who was previously a senior engineer with Uber’s infrastructure team. The startup is Egypt’s first digital bank.

Users may create a Telda account entirely online, using only their phone number and national ID number. Telda’s account comes with a Mastercard-powered card that can be used for online payments, in-store transactions, which cash withdrawals (and can be requested from the app). Users may use the IBAN that they earn for their digital account on Telda to receive money from anyone in Egypt and beyond.

The startup is aiming at Gen Z in the whole of the Middle East, starting with Egypt.

The fintech space in Egypt is still largely unexplored, despite moves by startups to fill that void, with Soliman S. AlTayyar, an Egypt-based capital markets and investment expert telling Afrikan Heroes that, currently, digital payments to GDP is 3% and that the Egyptian government is aiming to increase this to 10% in 2–3 years.

Telda Digital Bank Telda Digital Bank

With Fawry’s Unicorn Status, Does Egypt’s Stock Exchange Hold The Unicorn Wand For Tech Startups In Egypt?

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