Disruptech, the Egyptian fintech fund founded by Fawry’s former MD invests in Khazna & Brimore

Disruptech, the recently established Egypt-focused $25 million fintech fund founded by Fawry’s co-founder and former managing director Mohamed Okasha, and ‘leading finance guru’ Malek Sultan, has made its first two investments, it told MENAbytes today. The investments have been made in Khazna & Brimore. The firm did not disclose the exact size of investments but has told MENAbytes that each one of them is a six-figure USD deal.

Khazna

Khazna, founded last year by Omar Saleh, Ahmed Wagueeh, Fatimah El Shenawy, and Omar Salah is a Cairo-based fintech that aims to provide mobile financial services to over 20 million underbanked Egyptian.

Its first product is Khazna HR, a salary cash advance app that allows employers (who partner with it) to offer cash advance to their employees as a benefit, helping them to cover for unforeseen emergencies. Khazna claims to have already signed with a number of companies with over 70,000 employees.

Omar Saleh said, the co-founder and CEO of Khazna, said, “We are happy to have Disruptech as an investor and longterm partner in Khazna. It is an industry specialized fund that will bring significant value to the company.”

Khazna had announced the closing of its seed round led by Algebra Ventures and joined by Accion Venture Lab, last month, without disclosing the size of the investment.

Brimore

Founded in 2017 by Mohamed Abdulaziz and Ahmed Sheikha, Brimore is a distribution technology platform that enables local manufacturers and suppliers to have nationwide coverage through a network of individual sales agents– mainly females – selling products directly to consumers in their circles using mobile apps and different other channels.

The startup that raised $800,000 in a seed round last year from Endure Capital, Algebra Ventures, 500 Startups, and Flat6Labs claims to have closed 2019 with 10x year-over-year growth and says that it is now approaching a monthly GMV of $500,000.

Brimore on the surface, at least, is not a fintech but Mohamed Okasha, the Managing Partner of Disruptech, speaking to MENAbytes hinted that the Cairo-based startup could explore the option of expanding into digital lending (for its partners), “We look at fintech as an ecosystem and Brimore is an edistribution platform with a clear digital lending opportunity and supply chain finance which is part of this ecosystem.”

Mohamed Abdulaziz, the co-founder and CEO of Brimore, said, “We have been very selective with our choice of investors. Disruptech is a partner that will be adding great value and supporting the company with the experience its management team has, specifically in financial services and social impact.

Disruptech is confident that these startups will disrupt financial services

Mohamed Okasha, Disruptech’s Managing Partner, commenting on the investments said, “We are pleased to start investments in Egypt with two startups that have demonstrated clear long term potential for growth: smart founders with strong execution capabilities who are disrupting traditional markets with easy to use technology and scalable business models.”

“We look forward to adding value to these companies and to being a part of their growth journeys. At a time when many are concerned about the impact that Covid-19 will have on the startup-community, Disruptech feels confident that companies aiming to disrupt financial services will come out on the winning end,” he added.