With A New Funding Of $3 Million From eFinance, Egypt’s Nexta Wants To Disrupt The Country’s Fintech Space

Egypt’s Nexta, a startup looking to disrupt the fintech space in Egypt has secured an investment of $3 million from a state-owned provider of digital payments solutions eFinance. This follows a $2 million pre-seed round led by Disruptech that the startup had earlier in March.

Nexta plans to launch its banking app in the coming months and the funding it received will a long way in bringing that to life. The startup received a provisional license last year from Egypt’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). Nexta will now be focusing on fulfilling further requirements and obligations before it can be granted the final approval for the agent banking license it needs to launch its services in Egypt. 

Its imminent app will have a partner bank tasked with the onus of handling settlements and being an intermediary between Egypt’s central bank and Nexta.

The startup was founded in 2021 by Ahmed Hisham, who is looking to disrupt the Egyptian fintech scene with Nexta’s app which he described as the next generation, and cards that will allow seamless payments, transfers, etc. “We’re trying to build next-generation banking and provide a seamless user experience to the consumer. We want to make easy and instant onboarding, card aggregation, linking all of your cards, and several methods of cash-in features. That’s the first thing we are going in with the soft launch, and budgeting and tracking spending. And then we’ll add more features every month or quarter more features to solve the pinpoints of Egyptians,” he said. Nexta will be generating revenue from fees it plans to charge on transactions. 

Egypt remains one of the most cash-reliant economies in Africa and startups like Nexta want to change that while leveraging the opportunities that lie within. Nexta currently has a waitlist that can be accessed via its website and has been engaging people via content marketing while it prepares for its launch. The startup, however, failed to provide the number of people on its waitlist.

Speaking on how cash is the biggest rival to fintechs like Nexta, the startup’s CEO said that “I believe that the competition is very healthy and thanks to Telda for the awareness they made to consumers and taking the first step. The Egyptian market needs not only Telda and Nexta but four or five other players like us.” Telda is another Egyptian consumer money app looking to “revolutionize finance for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.” It recently acquired a $20 million seed investment from investors like Sequoia Capital, Global Founders Capital (GFC), and  Jack Dorsey’s Block.

The investment Nexta received from eFinance will be used to fuel its launch, hire talents and invest in its technology. CEO Ahmed Hisham also described the partnership with eFinance as a strategic one, rather than an investment round, adding that Nexta is elated to have Nexta on its side. “We believe there is a huge opportunity for us to offer a differentiated and outstanding experience to different users in such a promising market,” he said.

According to eFinance’s chairman and CEO, Ibrahim Sarhan, the investment in Nexta goes in line with the country’s digital transformation plan and vision for 2030, and also with 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. It’s worth noting 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,” he added.