Egypt’s MoneyHash raises pre-seed investment to build a super API for payments

Cairo-based fintech MoneyHash has raised pre-seed investment led by Amir Farha’s COTU Ventures, it announced in a statement today, without disclosing the exact size of the deal. African early-stage VCs Ventures Platform, Kepple Africa Ventures, and some angel investors also participated in the round.

Founded in late 2020 by Nader Abdelrazik, Mustafa Eid, and Anisha Sekar, MoneyHash is building a super API for payments that aggregates payment and fintech solutions, enabling merchants to provide a unified checkout experience to their customers – and access data and reports through one central dashboard.

The startup is currently testing its service in private beta, with plans to go live soon in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. MoneyHash wants to offer its services across multiple other geographies in the Middle East & Africa by the end of 2022.

To be able to use MoneyHash’s super API, the merchants are supposed to have accounts with any payment processor that they want to integrate into their checkout experience. It is also in the process of partnering with three payment processors, two KYC companies, and an open banking company to facilitate account opening and offer an end-to-end experience to merchants, its co-founder and CEO Nader Abdelrazik told MENAbytes.

Speaking about the pricing, he said that they will charge merchants with a subscription plus a microtransaction fee. The startup is still experimenting with different combinations and will have more details to share when it launches publicly.

In a statement, Nader added, “The Middle East & Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions with a rapidly evolving payment and fintech scene. As many companies in the region and abroad plan their expansion to this part of the world, they are faced with a devastating technical and operational hassle: building a separate connection with each service provider while providing a unified experience for their customers. This results in a complicated tech stack wasting valuable resources with increased vulnerabilities to errors, fraud, and technical debt. MoneyHash’s technology abstracts the complexities of this fragmented market and allows businesses to scale and grow with a complete focus on their product, and without compromising security and efficiency.”

Anisha Sekar, co-founder and CPO of MoneyHash, said, “We are crafting a comprehensive revenue solution built for flexibility and scaling. With a unified checkout experience powered by a single API integration, businesses throughout MEA can instantly access the providers and products they need to grow. We increase speed to market and save weeks of effort upfront, and with a complete view of the revenue stack, we provide insights, automations, and smart routing to save time and money in the long term. Our mission is to build an efficient, secure, comprehensive solution that helps – rather than hinders – growing businesses.”

Amir Farha, the Managing Partner of COTU Ventures, said, “It’s rare to find such a well-rounded and complete team with deep domain experience and technical prowess so early in a company’s life. We’re very excited to back Nader, Anisha, and Mustafa, as they look to tackle a problem that suits a fragmented region like the Middle East. The clarity with which they articulated their vision and strategy, and the chemistry we felt from the start, convinced us to support them in kick-starting their plans to build a payments super API for the region and beyond. We are grateful they chose us as partners and are looking forward to what’s ahead.”

The Egyptian startup plans to use the funds to further develop its technology, expand its team and launch its services.