Nexta, Egypt's FinTech Startup, Receives $3M Funding to Launch its "Next-Gen Banking App"
Nexta, an Egyptian digital banking startup, has received a $3 million investment from eFinance Group, a state-owned provider of digital payments solutions, to launch its “Next-Gen” banking app in the coming months.
Ahmed Hisham founded Nexta in 2021 with the singular vision of disrupting the Egyptian fintech scene with its “next-generation banking” app and card. According to the company, the Nexta card will aggregate users’ existing payment cards, making it easier to transfer money and track spending, among other things.
“We’re trying to build next-generation banking and provide a seamless user experience to the consumer,” said Ahmed Hisham, CEO, and founder of Nexta. We want to make card aggregation, linking all of your cards, and several methods of cash-in features as simple and quick as possible. That is the first step we are taking with the soft launch, as well as budgeting and tracking spending. Then, every month or quarter, we’ll add more features to address Egyptians’ pain points.”
According to the CEO, the investment is more of a strategic partnership than funding round, and Nexta is excited to have e-finance on board as the demand for financial services in Egypt grows. “We believe there is a huge opportunity for us to offer a differentiated and outstanding experience to different users in such a promising market.”
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On the reason for investing in Nexta, Ibrahim Sarhan, chairman and CEO of eFinance in a statement said the investment in Nexta is in line with Egypt’s digital transformation plan and vision for 2030, including the Group’s plan to maximize its assets and investments by investing in the fintech space. “Nexta is among the promising companies financed by the Group within several targeted investments. And it’s s worthy of note that the Group took part in establishing Nclude—an investment fund—to invest in emerging fintech companies, thus improving the current and future direction of fintech in Egypt.”
This funding round comes at the heels of the finTech startup securing 2 million in an Egyptian early-stage Venture Capital firm, Disrupttech-led pre-seed round in March this year. Nexta will utilize the funds to prepare for its launch, hire talents and invest in its technology.
Nexta, which received a provisional license from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) last year, will seek to complete additional requirements and meet certain obligations to obtain the CBE’s final approval for the agent banking license required to begin operations in Egypt. The Nexta app, on the other hand, will use a partner bank to handle settlements and act as an intermediary between itself and the CBE.