Egyptian fintech startup Khazna has secured an undisclosed amount in its seed funding round.
The funding round for Khazna was led by Algebra Capitals, which has invested in around 16 technology companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Some of the companies that Algebra Capitals have invested in include HolidayMe, Trella, Elmenus, GoodsMart, and Halan.
Accion Venture Lab, Accion’s seed-stage fund that recently closed $33 million in fresh funds also participated in the round.
Khazna will use the funding to bring its services to around 20 million Egyptians who have access to a mobile phone but have little or no access to financial services in the country.
Omar Saleh, Khazna’s co-founder and chief executive officer, told the media, “Khazna is focused on bringing customer-centric services to over 20 million active smartphone users in Egypt who lack access to formal banking and financial services. This wouldn’t have been possible without the significant momentum created by the Central Bank of Egypt towards digitisation and financial inclusion.”
He added, “The investment will be used to advance our financial inclusion-focused products and used cases to reach the product-market fit stage by leveraging new technologies, data, and analytical tools to serve the underbanked in Egypt.”
Khazna was founded by Omar Saleh, Ahmed Wagueeh and Fatimah El Shenawy in 2019. Its first product in the market will be called Khazna HR, a salary cash advance app that allows partnered businesses to offer cash advance to their employees as a benefit and help them to cover for unforeseen emergencies.