Telda, an Egyptian consumer money app, has raised USD 20 million and seeks to ““revolutionize finance for the MENAP region.”
Telda, an Egyptian consumer money app, has raised USD 20 million in funding from a range of sources. Having previously been delayed due to issues in obtaining a digital banking license, the company has now started operations.
“We are humbled to be the first company to receive the license in Egypt. Egypt’s commitment to shaping the future of finance and establishing itself as a global fintech hub is reflected in the support we’ve received from regulators over the past year,” said founder Ahmed Sabbah.
Telda: Plugging a gap
According to TechCrunch, the company started operations last month with the launch of its app. Telda had onboarded 25,000 cards and has a waiting list of 110,000 customers who had preordered their cards.
Egypt is one of the highest consumer spending markets in Africa and private consumption accounts for approximately 85% of the country’s nominal GDP. Only 4% of the overall GDP is cashless. 50% of Egypt’s population uses smartphones and two-thirds of residents have little or no access to formal financial services.
Refining the product
Over the past year the company has worked on refining its offering, believing it better to launch a comprehensive product with superior functionality than to rush to market, ““We’ve also learned that customers are craving an intuitive user experience when it comes to banking, similar to what they see in the daily applications they use, social media. We believe our competition is and has always been cash and this is the hardest competition to face in MENA. We’re laser-focused towards changing how Egyptians feel about and interact with their money,” said Sabbah.
International financing
Investors include Sequoia Capital and Global Founders Capital (GFC), who led the round. Telda previously secured a USD 5 million pre-seed last May, a month after Sabbah and his co-founder Youssef Sholqamy founded the company.
Speaking on their investment in Telda, Roel Janssen, a partner at lead investor Global Founders Capital, said, “We are incredibly excited to further strengthen our partnership with Telda. The company has launched a product that is better than most international consumer payments companies, and Ahmed and Youssef have attracted some of the brightest Egyptian talent in product, engineering and GTM. We are confident that Telda will continue to amaze Egyptian customers with an outstanding product experience and exceptional service in the coming years.”
Egypt has long been the recipient of the highest levels of FDI in Africa, with significant investments being made from Qatar and Saudi Arabia.