MoneyFellows, an Egyptian fintech company, has raised $13 million in a pre-Series C round led by Al Mada Ventures and DPI’s Nclude Fund. The funding, which also saw participation from Partech Africa and CommerzVentures, brings the company’s total funding to over $60 million. The company plans to use this capital to shift from steady growth to regional expansion, focusing on replicating its success in other African and South Asian markets.
Unlike many African fintech companies that rely on working capital, MoneyFellows has built its business model around lending billions of Egyptian pounds without depending on debt or balance sheet exposure. The company digitizes one of the world’s oldest financial systems—Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs)—to provide a more scalable and inclusive platform for savers and borrowers.
In a ROSCA, a group of people contribute a fixed amount of money to a collective pot, with one member receiving the total amount each month. MoneyFellows digitizes this process using an app that matches savers and borrowers through behavioral data, credit scores, and income tiers. The company only steps in when a group’s slot is unfilled, maintaining a lean operation.
Since its launch in 2018, MoneyFellows has grown to over 8.5 million users and reached profitability in Egypt. The average payout per user has nearly doubled, from $453 to $906. The company has also introduced a card product allowing users to receive payouts, repay installments, and make payments across a merchant network.
Despite its strong growth, MoneyFellows’ next challenge will be expanding outside Egypt. The company is in the process of entering Morocco, a market with a large unbanked population and a strong informal savings culture, and plans to expand into other African and South Asian markets. The fintech is also eyeing products like investment, payroll, insurance, and remittances to compete with other Egyptian digital banks.
After years of refining its model, MoneyFellows is confident in its ability to scale ROSCAs digitally, a feat that has challenged banks and telcos globally. The company’s ability to modernize the ROSCA model has had a significant impact on thousands of families in Egypt and is poised to do the same in other regions.
Omar Laalej, Managing Director at Al Mada Ventures, praised the modernized ROSCA model, stating, “AMV was impressed by the modernized version of this business that MoneyFellows was able to build, positively impacting thousands of families in Egypt.”
