Egyptian FinTech MNT-Halan Announces $400M of Fresh Funding

Egypt’s MNT-Halan has raised $400 million at a valuation of over $1 billion.

The funding was announced by the Cairo-based FinTech on Monday (Feb. 1). The largest chunk of the fresh capital was from Chimera Abu Dhabi, which has invested more than $200 million in exchange for over 20% of the company, MNT-Halan said.

On top of Chimera’s equity investment, the company also announced two securitizations totaling $140 million.

Finally, the firm said it is in “advanced stages with leading international investors to raise $60 million of primary capital.” While MNT-Halan didn’t disclose who those international investors were, last week (Jan. 26), the International Finance Corporation revealed that it will invest up to $40 million in the company.

Formed out of the merger of the ride-hailing startup Halan and the micro-lending platform MNT investments in 2021, the combined company has since dropped its ride-hailing business to focus on financial services, including small- and micro-business lending, payments, consumer finance and eCommerce.

In Monday’s statement, the company said “MNT-Halan was created to digitally bank the unbanked and substitute cash with electronic solutions.” It added that the firm serves over 5 million customers in Egypt, of which 3.5 million are financial clients and over 2 million are borrowers.

While MNT-Halan is one of the better capitalized firms addressing the challenges of financial exclusion in Egypt, it is not the only one to see the digitization of payments as key to the task.

For example, dopay is trying to empower unbanked workers in Egypt by issuing prepaid cards that can be used as a cashless payroll solution by businesses.

MNT-Halan’s founder and CEO expressed enthusiasm over the funding news.

“I am excited for what lies ahead as we continue to grow both organically and inorganically by offering cutting-edge financial products and services locally and internationally to empower the underserved,” Mounir Nakhla said.

Seif Fikry, CEO of Chimera Abu Dhabi, added: “We are thrilled to be part of Egypt’s greatest FinTech success story. MNT-Halan’s upward trajectory and momentum reflect the management team’s realization of its extraordinary vision to transform a high touch business by seamlessly infusing an unparalleled proprietary tech platform while increasing product depth for its target customer segment.”

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.