Egypt’s leading fintech company MNT-Halan is securing $400 million in new equity and finance, bringing its valuation to more than $1 billion, the company said. The latest $400 million in funding is the largest in Egypt and one of the biggest in the Middle East in the past 12 months.
A large chunk of the equity was provided by Abu Dhabi’s Chimera which invested more than $200 million in exchange for over 20% in the Cairo-based company, MNT-Halan said in a statement.
Mounir Nakhla, MNT-Halan founder and CEO, said that having support from the region’s premier Abu Dhabi-based private investment firm Chimera was significant. “The timing of the transaction is also a testament to our ability to significantly increase our revenues and open new revenue streams while growing our bottom line, despite the macro-economic situation,” he said. Nakhla said the company plans to offer cutting-edge financial products and services locally and internationally to empower the underserved.
Funding has been secured from:
— MNT (@MNT_Halan) February 1, 2023
–@ChimeraCapital who have invested $200 million ⚡️
-The company also raised $140m through two securitized bond issuances. ⚡️
-The world’s leading development institution has invested $60m. ⚡️/2
Seif Fikry, CEO of Chimera Abu Dhabi, said, they were thrilled to be part of “Egypt’s greatest
fintech success story”. The investor said that “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.”
The five-year-old company also announced two deals worth $140 million via two securitized bond issuances through subsidiaries Tasaheel Microfinance Company (Tasaheel) and Halan Consumer Finance (Halan) with Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt’s largest private sector bank.
MNT-Halan: The Cairo-based fintech company was founded in 2018 to provide digital banking solutions to the unbanked and underbanked population of the country. The company offers a digital ecosystem for small and micro business lending, payments, consumer finance, and e-commerce.
- MNT-Halan serves over 5 million customers in Egypt (3.5 million financial clients and over 2 million borrowers).
- It has 1.3 million monthly active users.
- The company has obtained multiple licenses (micro, SME, consumer, and nano finance) from the Financial Regulatory Authority and the Central Bank of Egypt.
- MNT-Halan has secured the first independent e-wallet license from Egypt’s central bank, allowing it to perform digital disbursement, collection, and transfer of money via mobile apps.
Following the completion of new funding, MNT-Halan’s valuation will exceed $1 billion. The Egyptian company will reach unicorn status in Africa, joining a list that includes Nigerian Flutterwave and Opay, and Senegalese Wave.
Last June, MNT-Halan acquired Talabeyah, a B2B e-commerce platform that offers FMCG supplies directly to small merchants and retailers with next-day delivery. This allowed MNT-Halan to provide loans to these merchants or grocers, improving digital access for hundreds of thousands of merchants across Egypt to cross-sell and spur growth across lending, payments, and e-commerce.
Earlier, MNT-Halan raised $120 million from private equity firms, including Development Partners International (DPI), Apis Growth Fund II, and Lorax Capital Partners, and venture capitalists such as Middle East Venture Partners.
