Egyptian fintech MoneyHash closes $4.5 million Seed round

We are thrilled to announce that MoneyHash, the first and leading payment orchestration platform in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), has successfully raised $4.5 million in a seed funding round. The round was co-led by COTU Ventures and Sukna Ventures, with participation from RZM Investment, Dubai Future District Fund, VentureFriends, and a group of strategic investors and operators.

Despite the significant slowdown in market activity, this investment illustrates the market’s confidence in MoneyHash and its potential for continued growth and market leadership. MoneyHash's proprietary payment orchestration platform and end-to-end payment operating system have garnered acclaim for their innovative approach to streamlining payment processes, making it the top choice for businesses seeking efficient and scalable payment infrastructure. This funding will enable MoneyHash to further invest in its technology and expand its business growth initiatives across the region.

Addressing Challenges in The MEA Payments Landscape

The payment landscape in the MEA is highly fragmented. Each country has tens of payment providers and methods, developing payment regulations, limited economic integration with other markets, and a diverse set of customer preferences and market dynamics.

The complexity of the ecosystem is compounded by the region's susceptibility to payment fraud, low checkout conversion rates, and increased transaction failures. "COVID certainly boosted the adoption of digital payments in the region, but the infrastructure remains significantly underdeveloped. In MEA, payment failure rates are three times the global average, and fraud rates and cart abandonment are over 20% higher than in all other regions. This places merchants in a challenging position, viewing payments as a cost and risk center rather than a strategic enabler," says Nader Abdelrazik, co-founder and CEO of MoneyHash.

Abdelrazik adds, "However, the opportunity is enormous. MEA's trillions of dollars in payments are still less than 10% digital, suggesting the region will experience the most growth over the next decade. Merchants who navigate the complex payment ecosystem effectively will reap significant benefits. This is where MoneyHash steps in."

Empowering MEA With a Full Suite of Payment Capabilities

MoneyHash offers a comprehensive payment operating system as a service to address the various technological and product challenges faced by enterprise merchants. Elena Panchenko, the Chief Product Officer of MoneyHash, emphasizes, “Payment challenges are intertwined. Rather than merchants juggling between solutions and in-house fixes, we offer a versatile suite to address current and future challenges simultaneously.”

MoneyHash's product includes a unified API to integrate pay-in and pay-out rails, a fully customizable checkout experience, transaction routing capabilities with fraud and failure rate optimizers, and a centralised transaction reporting hub. This is complemented by tools enabling various use cases, such as virtual wallets, subscription management, and payment links.

Elena adds, “An integrated set of solutions is essential for enterprise merchants to address challenges comprehensively and explore opportunities freely. The infrastructure is powered by over 200 pre-integrated APIs with payment service providers and payment methods across 80+ markets. This not only offers merchants maximum flexibility and coverage but also helps us gain the trust of our customers, knowing that all scenarios and implementations fall within our expertise.”

MoneyHash products promise a 10-20% increase in revenue generation and a 90% decrease in development costs.

MoneyHash Progress & Future Plans

MoneyHash was established in early 2021 by Nader Abdelrazik and Mustafa Eid, two Egyptian technologists with extensive backgrounds in fintech and enterprise software. After a successful BETA launch in 2022, which attracted key players in the region such as Foodics, Rain, and Tamatem, MoneyHash launched its enterprise suite last October, targeting large enterprises.

In 2023, MoneyHash doubled its network of integrations, achieved triple revenue, and grew its processing volume by 30x. It also landed large enterprise customers shortly after its October launch.

Amir Farha, Managing Partner at COTU, stated, “We firmly believe that the full potential of digital payments in MEA is yet to be realized. MoneyHash has developed a sophisticated and high-quality platform that can catalyze the growth of digital payments across the region, enabling both global and local merchants to tap into new revenue streams.

We are thrilled to renew our support for a team that has consistently demonstrated superior execution, not just in securing top mid-market and enterprise customers, but also in expanding value across the entire chain, even under challenging market conditions.”

Asher Siddiqui, General Partner at Sukna Ventures, expressed, “In the rapid digital transformation of the region, part of Sukna’s fundamental thesis is to back exceptional teams that are pioneering transformative infrastructures in specialized sectors. The team at MoneyHash embodies this vision, consisting of skilled payment operators who have leveraged their expertise to establish a competitive edge, prioritizing engineering precision above all else. Their product, refined with precision and supported by a stellar team, is exceptionally well-positioned to lead the market and define the future of digital payments in the region.”

This round marks the first Middle Eastern investment by Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub's founder and early Stripe investor, highlighting his belief in MoneyHash's product quality and its ability to solve critical customer issues. MoneyHash announced his participation in an earlier press release.

MoneyHash, headquartered in NYC with 30 team members across 9 countries globally, previously raised a $3 million pre-seed round in 2021. The new funds will primarily be used to expand the business team and growth capabilities while maintaining technological progress.