Ahmed Wadi: Money Fellows Reinvented the Traditional Savings Circle
Share to social media
Transforming an idea deeply rooted in popular culture into a global financial technology company is no easy task, especially when it involves managing people’s money and building trust in a digital product within a society long accustomed to cash-based dealings.
This is the journey undertaken by Ahmed Wadi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Money Fellows, which successfully reinvented the traditional savings circle and transformed it into a digital platform serving millions of users in Egypt and beyond.
In his interview with Egypt Innovate, Ahmed Wadi speaks about his academic and professional journey in Germany, how a personal experience with financing evolved into a startup idea, his regional expansion plans, and his vision for building a financially aware digital community.
From Computer Science to Entrepreneurship
Ahmed Wadi’s academic journey began with studying Computer Science at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. He then continued his path by earning a Master’s degree in Information Technology from the Technical University of Munich. As he describes it, these years were not merely an academic phase, but a comprehensive life experience that significantly shaped his way of thinking.
Gaining Practical Experience
Working in Germany after graduation allowed Wadi to engage directly with professional environments built on precision, discipline, and the development of digital products designed to solve real problems. He also went through the experience of founding a startup in Europe, which gave him early, hands-on exposure to understanding markets, building teams, and transforming ideas into viable products.
Wadi believes this stage taught him a fundamental lesson: success does not start with an idea, but with understanding the user. Any product that does not solve a real problem will remain nothing more than an attractive concept on paper.
A Personal Experience That Shaped the Idea
During his time in Germany, Ahmed Wadi faced a challenge when attempting to obtain personal financing. He discovered that the available options relied heavily on long credit histories, which excluded a large segment of individuals who were capable of repayment but lacked sufficient credit records.
This experience brought to mind the traditional Egyptian savings circle, which he grew up seeing among families and friends as one of the most common forms of saving and informal financing within society. Despite its simplicity and widespread adoption, it lacked essential elements such as organization, flexibility, convenience, and security.
From there, the idea of Money Fellows began to take shape: why not combine the spirit of the traditional savings circle with modern financial technology? And why not transform this popular social tool into a secure, organized, and scalable digital product?
Ahmed Wadi emphasizes that Money Fellows did not aim to change the concept of the savings circle, but rather to fully reinvent it. The core idea remained the same: periodic group saving to achieve clear financial goals. What changed was the method of execution.
The digital platform allows users to choose the savings circle that suits them, with clear schedules for payments and payouts, without relying on a personal social network. All transactions are conducted electronically through banking partnerships, most notably with Banque Misr, ensuring full security and transparency.
Wadi believes the success of the idea lies in its ability to speak to users in their own language and cultural context, while simultaneously delivering a modern digital experience that aligns with global developments in financial technology.
Security and Organization as the Foundation of Growth
One of the biggest challenges the company faced in its early days was the absence of a clear regulatory framework for this type of service. Operating in the financial sector without regulation poses a major risk, both for the company and for users.
For this reason, Money Fellows was keen to operate under the supervision of the financial technology regulatory sandbox of the Central Bank of Egypt. All savings circles are fully guaranteed, with Banque Misr managing the banking operations and clear mechanisms in place to handle cases of delay or default, ensuring seriousness and discipline.
This structured approach helped the company gradually build trust, which Wadi considers the most difficult and most important challenge in the Money Fellows.Measured Growth and Achieving Profitability
Although the vision was ambitious from the very beginning, Wadi stresses that reaching the current level of impact was not sudden, but rather the result of consecutive and well-calculated steps. The market, both in Egypt and abroad, was clearly massive, with opportunities worth billions of dollars, but accessing it required time and patience.
The company recently succeeded in achieving profitability, an accomplishment Wadi considers a major turning point in the life of any startup, especially in the financial technology sector, which demands significant investment in infrastructure and Numbers That Reflect the Scale of Impact
Today, Money Fellows’ figures reflect the scale of impact the platform has achieved. The total transaction value processed through the application has exceeded the equivalent of 1.5 billion United States dollars. The application has been downloaded more than eight million times, with three hundred and fifty thousand monthly active users, and more than one million users who have benefited from the company’s services to achieve their financial goals.
The company has also successfully raised investments totaling sixty million United States dollars, after investors recognized that Money Fellows has become the world’s largest platform for organizing digital savings circles. The company is currently preparing for a new funding round of greater value to support its expansion plans.
Competition and Building a Distinct Category
Amid the crowded Egyptian financial technology market, Wadi believes that Money Fellows has positioned itself in a different category from consumer finance applications. The platform serves users who plan and save to achieve future goals, rather than those who are simply seeking installment-based purchasing options.
The launch of the prepaid card complemented the digital experience and gave users greater flexibility in managing their money, particularly those who do not have traditional bank accounts.
A Financially Aware Digital Community
Ahmed Wadi frequently speaks about the concept of a “financially aware digital community,” which represents the broader goal the company seeks to achieve. For him, technology is not an end in itself, but a tool to empower people to make better financial decisions and build sustainable saving habits.
Linking saving to clear goals such as education, starting a business, or travel turns saving into a positive habit rather than a burden. This is what Money Fellows aims to instill through its platform and various products.
He notes that the company aspires to empower users through simple and transparent financial tools that help them manage their money intelligently. The team firmly believes that technology is not a goal in itself, but a means to enable people to make conscious and sustainable financial decisions.
Regional Expansion: Morocco as the Gateway to Africa
After solidifying its business model in the Egyptian market, the company began its regional expansion steps, with Morocco selected as a carefully studied move. The Moroccan market, Wadi explains, is relatively less crowded and shows openness to digital financial solutions, alongside strong partnerships with major banking institutions.
Expansion into Morocco represents a gateway to broader growth across Africa, as the company seeks to replicate its success in markets with similar cultural and economic characteristics.
Advice to Entrepreneurs
In closing, Ahmed Wadi emphasizes that the most important advice for entrepreneurs is to start quickly from a real problem, without waiting for the perfect product. Building a simple model, continuously listening to customers, and developing based on their needs is the shortest path to building a successful and sustainable company.