Egypt is considered one of the most important countries in the Middle East for fintech ventures due to the high unbanked population.
So, who are the top fintech startups in Egypt?
In this article, we will highlight five startups that did a significant change in the financial industry market.
Vapulus was founded 2016 by Abdelrahman Elsharawy and aims to “to accept consumer payments, manage loyalty programs, and administer customer acquisition projects.” They want to become global leaders in the payment processing industry, and actually made it to the top 74 payment gateways in the world by Finance Online.
Vapulus has a very attractive pricing plan. They have 0% transaction fees, 0% monthly fees and 0% cross-border fees (for international wire transfers). However, the minimum settlement amount is $2,000 per week. Their latest product launch is Invopal, which helps with invoicing to clients through SMS, email or directly through the Vapulus payment application.
Signup through Vapulus website here.
2. eddyPay
eddyPay allows for on-the-spot transactions to be made between two parties. Its the newest in the fintech market, having been founded in 2018. They have no installation costs or monthly subscription costs, and eddyPay only takes 2.5% transaction commission and is supported by Paymob (scroll below) to ease money transfer between clients.
You can find out more information about them in our feature article on eddyPay here and their Startups Galaxy profile here.
eddyPay provides a unique value proposition in the number of cases it can be used in:
- Pay with phone through a unique Payment ID, a 4 digit number valid for 24 hours
- Receiving payment with phone through static QR codes (physical stores)
- Receiving payment with phone through dynamic QR codes (online stores
Download the eddyPay app here for Android and iOS to signup.
3. PayTabs
PayTabs is a Saudi based company backed by Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter. They have offices in KSA, Egypt, United Arab Emirates with an additional presence in 3 other countries. Founded by Abdulaziz Al Jouf in about 2014, according to their LinkedIn page, they’ve raised $20 million in total.
PayTabs offers many different integration methods: mobile SDK, direct API, iFrame, Express Checkout, and integrations with multiple different e-commerce plugins such as Shopify, Magento and WOO Commerce. Their pricing is mid level, with the Startup Package priced at $49.99 per month and with a maximum monthly volume of $2,000. Here’s a PDF of their full pricing breakdown.
Signup for PayTabs here.
4. PaySky
PaySky has a large portfolio of fintech products. They have PaySky Gateway, which is the standard set of APIs for integrating a payment method for your online store or service provisions. PaySky Wallet is made for closed communities such as sporting clubs, residential complexes, and campuses, for people to send and receive funds through mobile top-ups and bill payments. The last 2 suites of products are PaySky Box and SmartBox are devices to transmit payments through an offline POS system.
You can check their website here to create an acccount.
5. Paymob
Paymob Solutions is one of the biggest players in Egypt and the MENA region in fintech. Started in 2015, they have created over 7 different solutions to suit diverse industry needs. In addition to regular fintech solutions, they also have Disbursement for salaries, loans or commissions, Promo Management for campaign generation through customizable user behavior and Terminal Management.
Paymob also has Accept Payments, which is the regular fintech solution such as APIs for online gateways and checkout systems. Accept’s pricing starts at 3 EGP and 2.75% transaction fees. They also have an Enterprise option, and pricing for Jordan.
You can check Accept website here to sign up.
6. PayMe
PayMe Store eliminated the need to setup a website or an ecommerce store for your business. You can easily add products to your PayMe account and create quick payments. This elimination style for PayMe made it popular for boutique stores and for events. Tickets from small to large scale events used PayMe as their go-to ticket selling platform. PayMe’s newest product is EasyKash,
Fintech Opportunities
The fintech market is expected to grow exponentially in the country due to the large population of Egypt which has crossed 100 million. Furthermore, most of people do not have bank accounts and depend on cash transactions. After Fawry‘s spread in the country, big banks interest in digital solutions and the support of the Central Bank of Egypt, fintech startups have a huge opportunity ahead.
