Egypt’s Nexta raises $3 million to build its challenger fintech app

Nexta, an Egyptian startup that plans to launch its banking app in the coming months, has secured a $3 million investment from eFinance Group, a state-owned provider of digital payments solutions.

Founded by Ahmed Hisham in 2021, Nexta prides itself as a lifestyle banking app. The fintech provides users with prepaid cards, enabling them to transfer payments to one another without the need to set up a bank account while allowing them to track their spending habits and perform better budgeting.

According to the company, the Nexta card will aggregate users’ existing payment cards, allowing more effortless money transfer, and tracking spending, among other features. The Nexta app will have a partner bank to handle settlements and act as an intermediary between itself and the CBE–however, it’ll power its cards and tech.

Nexta's investment is coming a week after Telda, another neobank in Egypt closed a $20 million in seed funding. Proceeds from the investment will help Nexta prepare for its launch, hire talents and invest in its technology.

Earlier in March, the startup raised a $2.2 million pre-seed round led by Disruptech. This latest funding brings the total amount raised by the startup to about $5.2 million.

Egypt is among the highest consumer spending markets across Africa. The past few years witnessed a clear uptick in digital payments, yet it is estimated that only 4 percent of consumer spending is cashless.

This means that there’s an immense opportunity for fintechs to bring consumers spending online by launching card and neobanking services.