Egyptian consumer money app Telda raises $20M

Telda, an Egyptian consumer money app founded by ex-Swvl executive Ahmed Sabbah last April, has raised $20 million in seed funding. The fintech, in a statement, said it wants to “revolutionize finance for the MENAP region.” 

Its first market, Egypt, is one of the highest consumer spending markets in Africa. The North African market’s private consumption accounts for nearly 85% of its nominal GDP, and only 4% of its overall GDP is cashless. Card usage in the country is still in its infancy in the cash-heavy society, but startups like Telda are banking on their card products to change the narrative, or at least try. 

When Sabbah spoke with TechCrunch last year, he said Telda had obtained a license from Egypt’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) under its new regulations, allowing the company to issue cards and onboard customers digitally. However, for more than a year following this approval, Telda hadn’t still launched its app and card products to its more than 30,000 signups.