FarmDrive founded in 2014 has built an innovative solution that provides “detailed risk profiles of smallholder farmers to financial institutions”. FarmDrive does this through a credit score, generated by an algorithm developed by the team, in-house. The algorithm relies on data-sets collected from the farmers through their mobile phones, alternative data and machine learning.

FarmDrive (FD), a Kenyan startup set to unlock millions of dollars in loans for smallholder farmers in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa, received a follow-on investment from EWB Canada last month, with participation from AK IMPACT INVESTORS, 1 to 4 Foundation, ADAP SEED FUND 2 and The Lakes Charitable Foundation.

The company is keen to work with companies specialising in the financial technology (fintech) solutions field, to contribute to the development of the Egyptian capital market sector.The most prominent of these partnerships includes a contract with the Egyptian Company for Information Dissemination (EGID).

Stock trading app Thndr has completed its registration with the EGX, the company announced on its website. The no-commission equities trading platform last month became Egypt’s first company to obtain a new brokerage license since 2008.

Thndr, an Egypt-based startup has announced that it has received the first new brokerage license in the country in over a decade. Thndr recently acquired the necessary licensing from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA). 

Thndr has simplified the investment process to encourage more investment in stocks, bonds, and funds without hefty commissions or strings attched. Thndr has already opned free trading accounts where users can sign up using the app and get notified once approved.

We are starting with Egyptian equities, but we intend to quickly introduce alternative investment options to suit different risk/reward and involvement preferences

thndr is Egypt's mobile first investment platform with 0% commission, no account minimum, access to real time news, market data and easy account setup and funding processes.

Egyptian fintech startup Thndr, a participant in the most recent Y Combinator accelerator, is gearing up for its formal launch after receiving the first new brokerage license granted in the country in over a decade.

An easy-to-use initiator for the uninitiated, the platform is taking every step to break down barriers to a field that is defined by the very outdated notions and systems that Thndr seeks to address – it even offers a simulator for users to play virtual bigshots and hone their nous.

Thndr pre-seed funding involved an array of distinct investors such as Y-Combinator, 4DX Ventures, Endure Capital, The Raba Partnership, MSA Capital, along with some other notable investors that include Tom Stafford, Managing Partner, DST “Savings and investing is a critical part of building wealth and economic development, and Egypt’s youth needs a mobile first platform like Thndr to open the floodgates of investing in the coming decades.

Thndr recently acquired the necessary licensing from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) making the fast-growing startup the first company to acquire a brokerage license in Egypt since 2008. 

With steady growth in our user base, we have been working hard over the past year in order to optimize and perfect our product and are now ready to begin our scaling journey. We will dedicate the money from this bridge round to raise greater awareness for MoneyFellows, in order to allow a much greater number of users to access our application and meet their saving and financial needs

Devant l’incapacité des institutions financières à répondre à ses besoins, Ahmed Wadi, diplômé en informatique et start-uppeur en herbe, a tout simplement décidé de créer le service qui lui manquait lui-même. Inspiré des modèles traditionnels de micro-crédits, les Gemeyas, il a réinventé le principe grâce au digital, étendant ainsi leurs nombreux avantages à qui que ce soit, et de manière sécurisée.

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.

Through its Venture Capital investment platform, the Technology Investment Account (TIA), More Capital participated in an USD 1 Million Pre-Series A Bridge Round raised by Cairo-based Fintech Money Fellows.  

Users wanting to join a circle on MoneyFellows need to complete basic identity verification if the payout is low. If the payout is higher, the users will need to provide more documents such as income verification and assets owned to the company, which will provide a credit score.

Unique challenges are mainly regulations for Fintech companies usually being a grey area, without enough clarity on what exactly they might fall under.With lack of enough funds and diversity, fundraising is also another challenge for most of the startups in the MENA region.

Gam’eyat, Arabic word for Money circles, is a deeply established method within the Egyptian population for saving and rotating large sums of money, where a group of people form a circle and each person contributes a specific amount of money, all amounts are combined together, and members of the circle get the whole payout one by one.

Ahmed Wadi, the startup’s CEO and founder, says they plan to spread their reach across Egypt (they are currently concentrated in Cairo) as well as expand to other countries in Africa.  Wadi founded MoneyFellows in 2016 and reportedly raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round last year, with the participation of 500 Startups and Dubai Angel Investors.