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Fawry is the dominant ecommerce payment method in Egypt, accounting for almost 60% of payments. This e-voucher product allows shoppers to purchase online and pay afterwards using a 6 digit reference. This reference can be used to pay  at a variety of outlets (retail shops, ATMs or online banking) at more than 166,000 locations in 300 cities nationwide.

According to Gartner,* “Application leaders responsible for digital commerce payments should use this Gartner research to adapt their customer-facing and operational payments processes to the current environment, optimize the customer payment experience and build organizational resiliency.”  

1. Millennials squared – a parable of a digital wallet and beer moneyEarlier this year Sam Crowder stood up at a televised baseball game, and held a sign asking his Mum to send him “beer money”. He included his Venmo account information. Thousands of people sent him money, as his sign went viral. Beyond sharing this story as advice in case you ́re ever thirsty and leave your wallet at home, what it reflects is how the use of new technologies may start with digital natives, but then rapidly spread to other generations. It reflects the inter-generational adoption of, and use of, FinTech technologies.So, when looking at the potential of new services, it is important not just to consider the young people who will adopt it. But what will happen when they introduce the technology to their friends and family. Millennials are the earthquake that shakes companies, and adopt new tech and services at lightning speed. The rest of us are the tsunami of adoption that follows and lead to exponential growth.

2. Facebook, Amazon, Google or Ant Financial will become the largest retail bank in the worldIt’s 2020 and to apply for a loan, instead of going to your local bank branch, you quickly ask Facebook for approval. This is far from fanciful thinking. Even as of today, PayPal is arguably one of the largest retail banks — it has more money in deposits than all but the largest 20 US banks, and offers services from payments, to loans and credit cards (albeit currently via partners). But we believe that one of the major tech companies, whether that is Facebook, Amazon, Google, or Ant Financial (the financial arm of Alibaba) will not only transform retail banking, but rapidly become the largest retail bank in the world.“Some bankers and analyststhink that Google, Facebook, Amazon or the like will not fully enter a highly regulated, low-margin business such as banking. I disagree. What is more, I think banks that are not prepared for such new competitors face certain death”Francisco González, CEO, BBVA

hese major tech companies have the platform and the scale to upend retail banking. They already have a digital wallet which underlies the services that enable users to buy and sell on their platforms, such as Google Wallet and Amazon Payments. Facebook Messenger Pay is already available in the US while it recently received an e-money license from the Central Bank of Ireland. This means European users will be able to store and transfer money, and make online purchases. The transition to becoming the largest retail bank in the world will be swift and brutal for traditional banks.

We’ve built a large-scale, multi-sided technology platform and designed progressive financial choices to reach them. We use their digital footprint to create a financial identity using only behavioural data.

UMO is a financial technology company that partners with banks, MNOs and other e-commerce players to deliver progressive financial choices to customers in emerging markets across Africa and Asia

STARTUP WATCH- E-commerce company Capiter plans to invest EGP 500 mn next year to expand its geographical presence and the network of its SME clients, CEO and founding partner Mahmoud Nouh said, according to Al Mal. The Cairo-based company, which was founded in May 2019, operates an app that connects small and medium companies to suppliers.

In 2017 MTN Ghana – the local subsidiary of the South African mobile operator, and the market leader – redefined what constitutes a subscriber, removing 3.4m inactive lines from its network in the first quarter of the year. However, in the same quarter the company gained more than 800,000 new active customers. The net effect was a drop of 2.5m in its subscriber base, leaving it with 16.9m voice subscribers, according to the NCA.

MTN Ghana holds the largest market share. As of April 2017 it had a 56.1% share of mobile data services and 46.9% of voice. It also held 59.7% of broadband wireless access through its 4G services.

The firm saw revenue growth of 19.8% in 2016 on the back of its strong performance in the data segment. According to the company’s financial results, data revenue increased by 66% and accounted for 42% of total revenue in 2016 on the back of the launch of a 4G network.

“Egypt needs fintech, specifically after the success story of Fawry, since our financial markets are not properly regulated at the level of payments and e-commerce – all of it is more informal, so any solutions would boom,” Sharara says.

MoneyFellows, an Egyptian startup incubated in London, marries technology with traditional money circles to help people save and borrow through their social networks. Like many other startups, MoneyFellows has to work with commercial banks because the Egyptian government has strict regulations about institutions that can look after customers’ deposits.

At JUMO we connect people to opportunities. Two billion people worldwide have limited access to formal financial services such as borrowing and saving. We’ve built a large-scale, multi-sided technology platform and designed progressive financial choices to reach them. We use their digital footprint to create a financial identity using only behavioural data.

Nigerian fintech firm Carbon — an early-stage financial services startup based in Lagos — has posted on its website financials audited by KPMG.This comes four months after the company obtained a credit rating as a pre-IPO venture. Carbon — which recently rebranded its OneFi holding company and PayLater product titles into one name — plans to continue releasing its financial results on an annual basis, co-founder and CEO Chijioke Dozie told TechCrunch.This may not be totally unheard of in other global tech markets, but for startups in Africa’s big tech hubs — such as Nigeria — it’s a rarity.One of the first glimpses into startup financials in Nigeria came when Jumia shareholder Rocket Internet went public in 2014, which required it to include limited Jumia data in its annual report. The accompanying prospectus to Jumia’s listing this year on the New York Stock Exchange offered the most expansive financial data to date on a tech venture operating in Africa.Prior to this — and still for the most part — companies in the continent’s (mostly) pre-public (earlier-stage) startup hubs — such as Nigeria — provide little to no financial performance info.“Typically, in the local market, we have not seen a lot of voluntary transparency or the availability of data,” said Lexi Novitske — a Lagos-based VC investor at Acuity Venture Partners.“Most startups are concerned such disclosure could expose losses, give market intel to competitors or attract unwanted attention from regulators. It could also lead to negative negotiation leverage if partners saw that they were making good returns.”So why’d Carbon go to the trouble of putting its pre-public accounting out in the open for anyone to see?

Clients and recruiting were two reasons. “From a customer perspective, we are trying to get people to trust us with their financial services…so they can see this is the institution I’m dealing with and this is their financial position,” explained Carbon’s Dozie.Carbon has evolved from its original focus as an online lender to offer a broader array of mobile-based financial services — including payments, investment products, credit reports and business banking services. In March, the company acquired Nigerian payment solutions company Amplify for an undisclosed amount.By stats offered by Briter Bridges and a 2018 WeeTracker survey, fintech now receives the bulk of VC capital and deal-flow to African startups, many of which are attempting to reach the continent’s large unbanked and underbanked populations.Carbon fits into that category and its CEO believes being upfront about the startup’s financial position will attract top talent. “From a recruitment perspective, we want recruits to know we have good prospects — that this is a company that’s doing well and wants to keep doing well,” said Dozie.That impression is buoyed by Carbon’s initial results, which were fairly positive for a Series A-stage startup. The company had revenues in 2018 of $10 million, according to its online annual report, and turned a profit of around $500,000.It’s helped with recruiting interest, according to Dozie, who said he’d marked an increase in candidates inquiring about open positions since the results were posted.

we don’t get considered because investors don’t really think that you can get the results or this performance in the markets that we’re in,” he added — noting that Carbon has operations in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa and is considering expansion in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC and Egypt.Investor Lexi Novitske thinks Carbon offering financial performance data is a good thing for Africa’s tech ecosystem. “The move builds trust from clients, partners or investors in a market where there is not a lot of openness,” she said. “I am encouraged to see how other companies will react. My hope is that more will openly report their own metrics…”Dozie says the company will continue to post audited financials on an annual basis, even if they show losses. If the startup continues to expand, attract capital and talent and grow revenues, other Nigerian fintech firms may follow suit.

It combines instant messaging, social media and mobile payments into one App which will be available for download on Google Play and iOS app stores from 1 August 2019. A similar social payments platform model is already active in Asia, where payment apps are bundled with e-commerce, chat and ride-hailing services offered by firms such as Alibaba and Tencent in China. Imagine a WeChat of Africa!

In July 2018, Start-Up Nation Central hosted a delegation from Cassava Fintech, Africa who are leading Africa’s Fintech Transformation Revolution. Cassava Fintech provide inclusive access to digital financial services across Africa, helping drive financial inclusion, digital payments and the adoption of mobile e-commerce.

Capiter is a B2B marketplace that brings together FMCGs, wholesalers, and merchants on one platform, enabling merchants to order their products through an eCommerce checkout and receive credit on their purchases. Currently, it is serving over 30.000 merchants and 150+ FMCGs and wholesalers with a team of close to 100 people.

Fintech, at the heart of the banking sector revolutionObviously, Fintechs and traditional banks adopt very different strategies. Indeed, while traditional institutions have a long-term vision (analysis of the financial market, risk amortization), neobanks prefer immediate action.Thus, we can consider that there are two categories of Fintech on the market. On the one hand, regulated companies that ensure compliance with regulatory constraints, and on the other, those that adopt a completely different strategy based on customer satisfaction.The first category positions itself as a direct competitor of banking establishments, while the second opts for cooperation and encourages the buyout or majority stake.Fintechs base their strategy on customer dissatisfaction, especially with their bank . These new shoots seek to improve every aspect of the banking relationship, as a priority, by neglecting issues related to organization, compliance and profitability.However, professionals remain skeptical. Do these FinTechs really hope to succeed in a few months, where several players have been striving for years? By this we mean the fact of wanting to change the regulations of the sector or even the constitution of a team of experts within a short time.So far, experts in the banking industry doubt a real revolution in banking regulation.Traditional banks remain priority players in the marketDespite the emergence of remote banking and the new measure on banking mobility , traditional banks remain the majority players in the market. Indeed, new brands are still struggling to reach the same level as a "real" bank.In addition, for the time being, income from investment funds and venture capitalists has not been of much use to the banking sector. Remember, however, that it is thanks to them that certain brands such as Uber, Amazon or Tesla have succeeded.Today, players in e-commerce are using capital increases to compensate for losses, a technique that has not yet been adopted in the banking sector. As a starting point, SoftBank has already started by building up a $ 100 billion fund for banking technology.

MTN has also recorded an increase in data revenue which it ascribed to “greater population coverage, a revamp of our data portfolio and initiatives to drive 4G device penetration”

GreenTec, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, will invest an undisclosed amount of money in Bismart to enable the company upscale its digital and online platforms to connect customers to insurance and investments solutions available in the African market.The agreement, announced in Frankfurt, will see Bismart benefit from GreenTec’s expertise and experience in funding start-ups in Africa through capacity building, and process optimization.GreenTec will also avail to the Kenyan company a team of international experts to help implement adapted latest technology to the model in order to extend its local value chain and have more impact.

GreenTec, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, will invest an undisclosed amount of money in Bismart to enable the company upscale its digital and online platforms to connect customers to insurance and investments solutions available in the African market. The agreement, announced in Frankfurt, will see Bismart benefit from GreenTec’s expertise and experience in funding start-ups in Africa through capacity building, and process optimization.

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