MoneyFellows, an Egyptian fintech company operating a Shariah compliant model, has raised US$31 million in Series B funding to fuel its expansion into Asia and across Africa as well support product expansion across the B2C and B2B segments.
The round was led by CommerzVentures, Middle East Venture Partners and Arzan Venture Capital. Invenfin and National Investment Company participated in the round alongside existing investors Partech, Sawari Ventures, 4DX and P1Ventures.
Founded in 2016 by Adham Badr and Ahmed Wadi, MoneyFellows has digitized Gameya or rotating savings and credit associations, or more commonly known as money circles outside of the region. A money circle is a group of individual pooling their resources together toward a collective fund, allowing members of that circle access to a share of the proceeds on a rotating basis or as needs arise. Gameya is also known as chit fund in India.
Egyptian Islamic advisory firm Dar al-Ifta certified MoneyFellows’s model as Shariah compliant.
MoneyFellows has built a user base of over two million; the company said its monthly active users number in the hundreds of thousands, following an eightfold year-on-year growth.
“The support we received from leading local and global venture capital firms in times of instability and scarcity of growth capital rounds is a testament to their faith and confidence in our business model, our team and the overall opportunity that lies in the Egyptian market” Ahmed, who is also CEO of the firm, said.