February 4, 2025 - Khazna closed a $16 million pre-Series B funding round to advance its regional expansion, particularly targeting the Saudi Arabian market. The funding round witnessed contributions from both new and existing investors, including Disruptech Ventures, SANAD Fund for MSME, Aljazira Capital, Khwarizmi Ventures, Nclude, ICU Ventures, Quona, and Speedinvest.

January 27, 2025 - Hamilton, a protocol that provides technology for turning real-world assets in MENA into digital tokens on Bitcoin, has raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round. The funding was led by DisrupTech Ventures with support from other investors. Hamilton leverages Bitcoin’s unmatched security and decentralization to tokenize real-world assets. With the RWA market projected to reach $30 trillion by 2030, Hamilton is building a protocol to make financial products more accessible and inclusive globally, starting with emerging markets.

September 29, 2024 - WideBot AI, the foremost provider of conversational AI in the MENA region, proudly announces the launch of AQL-7B, a revolutionary Arabic Large Language Model (LLM) that has achieved the highest evaluation results in Arabic AI performance benchmarks. AQL-7B leads in accuracy and positions itself as a superior model for real-world applications, offering both efficiency and flexibility.

August 25, 2024 - PaySupp partners with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Egypt to disrupt supply chain financing in the region. This strategic partnership further solidifies PaySupp's commitment to optimize working capital funding for the whole supply chain and provide businesses with cutting-edge financial tools that not only drive sustainable growth and efficiency but cater to the ever-evolving needs of today's increasingly competitive landscape.

July 26, 2024 - MNT-Halan, Egypt’s largest non-bank financial institution and fintech, has acquired Tam Finans, a leading commercial finance company in Turkey with a loan book exceeding US $300 million, from Actera Group, the country’s leading private equity firm, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

June 25, 2024 - Connect Money, a banking-as-a-service fintech, successfully closed its $8 mn seed round to launch one-stop-shop embedded finance platform. Simplifying operations through an all-inclusive suite of “Managed Services'' to ensure end-to-end support, Connect Money avails state-of-the-art solutions include white-labelled card issuance, distribution, KYC, customer support and mobile banking app development. The round was co-led by DisrupTech Ventures, Algebra Ventures, and Lorax Capital Partners.

June 12, 2024 - Pharmaceutical distribution startup i’SUPPLY has raised a pre-Series A funding round, taking its total funding to US$2.5 million since its inception in 2022. i’SUPPLY has developed a tech-enabled platform that connects over 10,000 pharmacies with more than 200 small-to-medium-sized distribution companies, offering a portfolio of over 10,000 pharmaceutical products. The round saw participation from Disruptech Ventures, OneStop Capital, Axian Investment CVC and Egypt Ventures, among others.

June 2, 2024 - Mal Bazaar, a leading Egypt-focused insurtech growing into a one-stop-shop for e-insurance products, has announced its enhanced market position after acquiring a licensed insurance brokerage and securing approvals from the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA).

April 22, 2024 - Bokra announced the successful closure of its $4.6 million pre-Seed round led by DisrupTech Ventures, and SS Capital alongside other investors, setting it to revolutionise wealth management in the MENA region by being the first platform to offer goal-based investment and saving products through asset backed securities.

March 26, 2024 - Sprints.ai, the AI-powered edtech that is redefining education for the future, announces a $3 million bridge fundraising round as it ventures into 10 new markets. The geographical expansion of Sprints’ will not only bridge the regional talent gap, but also position MEA as a regional talent hub, as they plan to equip more than 200,000 learners.

March 15, 2024 - The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has given the green light to the acquisition of Advans Pakistan Microfinance Bank Limited by MNT–Halan Pak B.V., a holding company of a Dutch-Egyptian financial market player.

December 11, 2023 - Founded in 2023 by Bassem Mahmoud, Banknbox offers a wide array of B2B fintech services ranging from ATM management, transaction monitoring, POS and soft-POS electronic payment machines, payment gateway, and anti-fraud systems.

September 11, 2023 - Widebot, a pioneering AI startup specializing in chatbot technology, successfully concluded a significant investment round led by DisrupTech Ventures, in order to channel investments into emerging fintech ventures across the Arabian Gulf, particularly in the thriving markets of KSA and the UAE.

May 4, 2023 - Proparco announces an investment in an early-stage VC, DisrupTech Ventures, to support the development of Egypt's fintech sector and help expand access to financial services in the country. Proparco committed $5 mn in DisrupTech, which aims to provide seed capital with prime focus on fintech services. The fund raised $36 million from several investors, including Development Finance Institutions, Funds-of-funds and Family offices.

February 1, 2023 - MNT-Halan raises $400 mn in equity and debt financing from local and global investors as it continues to serve underbanked and unbanked customers in Egypt. The round demonstrates continued confidence in its value proposition, management team, and superior technology, as the company plans to expand internationally after solid growth in Egypt and progress on the swap agreement between super app Halan and Netherlands-based MNT Investments.

October 11, 2022 - i‘SUPPLY, MENA’s first tech-enabled distribution marketplace set to connect pharma businesses and financing SME wholesalers and pharmacies raises $1.5 million in its pre-seed round.

June 7, 2022 - Egypt-based insurtech, Nice Deer, raises $1 million in a pre-Seed funding round led by DisrupTech Ventures. Nice Deer enables SME employees to benefit from health insurance by paying for many medical and wellness services, including prescriptions, access to dental and optical clinics, and pay for gym memberships among other things.

June 2, 2022 - The Minister of Trade and Industry and CEO of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), Nevine Gamea, announced that the agency is cooperating with various donors and international agencies to entrepreneurs. The minister’s remarks came on the side-lines of signing new contracts with four investment funds within the VC programme funded by the World Bank. These funds include Algebra Ventures II, Endure, Disruptech Egypt Fund, and Flat6 Labs.

May 16, 2022 - AXIAN´s commitment to Disruptech underscores its strategy, which posits that advances in innovation and disruptive technologies can improve people´s day-to-day lives. This investment alignes with AXIAN group’s mandate to grow within the digital economy by promoting innovation-as-a-service to the communities it serves and by making new innovative solutions more accessible to the public. With AXIAN already present in several countries across Africa, the partnership with Disruptech will create a platform to identify synergies between its brands and start-ups in the Egyptian fintech and digital economy.

March 31, 2022 - Khazna, a Cairo-based financial Super App that offers easy to use, technology-driven financial services to Egypt’s underserved consumers and micro-businesses, raises a Series A round of $38 mn in equity and debt. The round comes as Khazna ramps up its efforts to replace informal cash-driven alternatives across Egypt, pairing a digital native solution with an innovative business model.

March 21, 2022 - Founded in Egypt in 2018 by Momtaz Moussa and Ayman Essawy, Lucky has grown rapidly since its inception and has the largest merchant network in Egypt. The Company’s mission is to revolutionise how MENA’s population shops, pays, and saves. Lucky brings seamless financial flexibility and increased spending power to MENA, where many consumers have not traditionally had access to credit.

March 14, 2022 - Nexta, an Egyptian-based fintech platform, secures $2.2m in a pre-seed round, led by DisrupTech Ventures, with the participation of key international backers. The company received an initial approval from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to provide its services locally after successfully meeting all CBE norms and standards.

March 2, 2022 - Egypt-based e-commerce platform Mumerz raises $1.2 mn to serve and support mothers and their children across the region on their journeys of healthy growth and development. Co-founded by Amir Shenouda and Nadia Gamal El Din, Mumerz.com aims to fill the gap in information, advisory, and products that parents and their children need.

January 31, 2022 - Egypt-based social commerce platform Brimore raises a $25 mn Series A round, marking the IFC's first-ever direct investment into an Egyptian startup. Founded in 2017 by Mohamed Abdulaziz, Ahmed Sheikha, and Mahmoud Refaay, Brimore enables small businesses to get their product out to the mass market by connecting them with to wide network of distributors across Egypt.

January 7, 2022 - Egypt-based B2B e-commerce Gahez raises $2 mn in pre-seed led by Disruptech Ventures alongside participation from Egypt Ventures, Tanmeyah, Afropreneur fund, and other angel investors. The funding will go towards building world-class technology and hiring top talent that will help Gahez cater to the targeted customer segments and future expansion plans.

September 8, 2021 - Founded in 2017 by Mounir Nakhla and Ahmed Mohsen, Halan started as a ride-hailing and delivery app offering two and three-wheeler services to customers in Egypt. Since then, it has provided other features, including wallets, bill payment services, e-commerce with buy now, pay later (BNPL) and micro and consumer loans, all in a bid to become a super app.

May 24, 2021 - Egypt-based agri-fintech platform Mozaer3, raises a seven-figure pre-Seed funding round. Founded in 2020 by Hussein Abou Bakr, Tamer El-Raghy, Mozare3 looks to enable 20 million small farmers to access formal, financial products, markets and agronomy support.

July 12, 2020 - Founded in 2019 by Hossam Ali, Ahmed Anwar, AbdAllah Moheb El-Din, and Ahmed Al Bakary, Fatura connects wholesalers in the FMCG space with the retailers through its mobile application, enabling them to order the inventory for their stores.

May 12, 2020 - Brimore, an Egypt-based social commerce and parallel distribution platform that connects manufacturers with consumers, has raised $3.5m in a Pre-Series A round. The Brimore technology platform, which includes payment and supply chain facilities, serves hundreds of SMEs to sell thousands of products including packaged foods, personal care, and household goods.

April 22, 2020 - Disruptech makes its first investments in two startups: Khazna and Brimore for undisclosed amounts. Khazna is a Cairo-based fintech startups that aims to provide mobile financial services to over 20 million underbanked Egyptians. While Brimore is an end-to-end distribution platform in Egypt that connects factories, individual sellers, and consumers through its online marketplace.

As the old saying goes, Egypt writes, Lebanon publishes, Iraq reads. Malek Sultan delves into the modern adaptation - where Egypt writes the code for Gulf and European businesses.

Mohamed Okasha, Managing Partner of DisrupTech Ventures, cites that $220 million are due to be invested in Egypt during the next two years. During his participation in Al Mal’s CEOs Thoughts Forum.

Malek Sultan shares his views with Fast Company Middle East on how startups in Egypt are navigating the economic storm.

In conversation with Fintech Gate, Malek Sultan tackles the ways in which startups in emerging markets can tackle the top 6 challenges in our current time.

Malek Sultan compiles a wealth of invaluable advice tailored specifically for founders embarking on the early stages of their startup journey, with a particular focus on the challenging realm of fundraising.