MoneyHash, the leading platform for organizing payment operations in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), announced that it has successfully raised $4.5 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by COTU Ventures and Sukna Ventures, with participation from Rizq Investment, Dubai Future Fund, VentureFriends, and a group of strategic investors.
Despite a significant market slowdown, this investment demonstrates the market’s confidence in MoneyHash and its capabilities for continuous growth and leadership in the Middle East and Africa markets. MoneyHash’s payment organization platform and end-to-end payment operating system have been praised for its innovative approach in simplifying payment processes, making it the preferred choice for companies and businesses seeking efficient and scalable infrastructure to manage payment operations. This funding will enable MoneyHash to further invest in its technology and expand its business growth initiatives in different markets.
Facing Challenges in Payment Operations in the Middle East and Africa
The payment landscape in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is highly fragmented. Each country has dozens of payment gateways, payment laws and regulations are still under review and development, economic integration with other markets is limited, and customers have a variety of preferences and market dynamics.
Markets are further complicated due to the region’s susceptibility to payment fraud, low customer conversion rates, and increasing payment failure rates. “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payments in the region, but the infrastructure remains largely underdeveloped. In the Middle East and Africa, payment failure rates are three times the global average, and fraud rates and cart abandonment rates are over 20% higher compared to other regions. This puts merchants in a difficult position, as they view payments as a cost center and risk rather than a strategic factor,” says Nader Abdelrazik, Co-Founder and CEO of MoneyHash.
Abdelrazik adds, “However, the opportunity is enormous. Digital payments in the Middle East and Africa, estimated at trillions of dollars, are still less than 10% digital, indicating that the region will witness the largest growth in the next decade. Merchants who effectively navigate the complex payments ecosystem will reap significant benefits. This is where MoneyHash comes in.”
Empowering the Middle East and Africa with a Full Range of Payment Capabilities
MoneyHash provides a comprehensive “Payment-as-a-Service” integrated operating system to address the technical challenges and various difficulties faced by merchants and companies. Elena Panchenko, Chief Product Officer at MoneyHash, emphasizes, “Payment challenges intersect. Instead of merchants navigating between different solutions and attempting to build an internal system, we offer a diverse set of features at MoneyHash to address current and future challenges simultaneously.”
MoneyHash’s products include a Unified-API unified application programming interface for integrating internal and external payment channels, fully customizable payment experiences, transaction routing capabilities with tools to reduce fraud rates and payment failure rates, and a central transaction and payment reporting center. Additionally, the platform possesses tools that enable companies to utilize various applications such as virtual wallets, subscription management, and payment links.
Elena adds, “The integrated suite of solutions is essential for merchants and companies to comprehensively address challenges and explore opportunities freely. The infrastructure is supported by over 200 integrations with service providers and payment methods in more than 80 markets. This not only provides merchants with flexibility and maximum coverage but also helps us gain the trust of our customers, knowing that all scenarios and implementations fall within our expertise.”
MoneyHash’s products promise an increase in revenue generation by 10-20% and a decrease in development costs by 90%.
Expansion and Future Plans for MoneyHash
Founded in early 2021 by Nader Abdelrazik and Mustafa Eid, Egyptian technologists with extensive backgrounds in financial technology and enterprise software, MoneyHash attracted key players in the region such as Foodics, Rain, and Tamatem after a successful beta launch in 2022. MoneyHash launched enterprise and corporate services targeting large companies in October last year.
In 2023, MoneyHash expanded its network of payment service providers and tripled its revenue, with processed payment volume growing by 30 times. It also acquired clients from large companies after its launch in October directly.
Amir Farha, Managing Partner at COTU, said, “We strongly believe that the full potential of digital payment in the Middle East and Africa has not yet been realized. MoneyHash has developed a sophisticated and high-quality platform that can drive digital payment growth in the region, allowing both global and local merchants access to new revenue channels.
We are excited to renew our support for a team that has consistently demonstrated outstanding execution, not only in attracting the best clients from institutions and markets but also in expanding value across the entire chain, even in challenging market conditions.”
Through a mutual friend, Ashraf Seddeek, General Partner at Sukna Ventures, said, “In the rapid digital transformation of the region, part of Sukna’s core thesis is to support exceptional teams leading the technical infrastructure transformation in specialized sectors. The MoneyHash team embodies this vision, consisting of experts in payment operations who have used their expertise to create a competitive advantage, prioritizing technical accuracy above all else. Their product, meticulously designed and backed by an excellent team, is exceptionally poised to lead the market and shape the future of digital payment in the region.”
This round marks the first investment in the Middle East for Tom Preston-Werner, the founder of GitHub and an early investor in Stripe, underscoring his belief in the quality of the MoneyHash product and its ability to solve critical customer problems. MoneyHash announced his participation in a previous press release.
MoneyHash now has 30 team members across 9 countries around the world, headquartered in New York State, United States, and previously raised a pre-seed funding round of $3 million in 2021. The new funds will primarily be used to expand the business team and growth operations while maintaining technological development. Visit MoneyHash’s website moneyhash.io for more information about their products and services.
