Egyptian FinTech Sympl Raises $6m 2 Months After Soft Launch

Sympl, an Egyptian fintech startup, managed to raise $6 million funds only two months after its soft launch. The majority of the funds came through the Dubai-based Beco Capital and Global Ventures VC firms, along with the Cairo-based A15. Sympl is a new Buy Now, Pay Later platform that seeks to help Egyptian consumers shop for the products they need and pay for them later with 0 per cent interest payments. Sympl was founded in August 2021. While it is the first of its kind in Egypt, it is still an infant.

Though BNPL appears to have taken off globally, it has yet to pick up steam in Africa with the exception of South Africa, which is experiencing a surge in demand for such services. It will be interesting to see how Sympl’s expansion and BNPL model plays out. That being said, TechCrunch mentions that “There’s a little twist to Sympl’s offerings which the founders made in a bid to localise its product for the Egyptian market. … Sympl operates a save your money, pay later model rather than the normal buy now, pay later model.”

The user can simply visit the website, search for a store, pick the product(s) they like, and go through a simple check-out process. Currently, Sympl is accepted as a payment option at more than 240 retail stores across Egypt. The company’s executives are seeking to reach 1,000 retail stores by the end of 2022 with the help of these funds.

Sympl was founded by Mohamed El-Feky and Yasmine Henna, the Co-Founders of the Egyptian consumer finance company valU, along with Karim Tawfik, co-founder of Capiter, a B2B e-commerce platform.

According to El-Feky, Sympl’s co-creator and CEO, the company is aiming to utilise the capital it acquired to expand its operations and give Egyptian consumers the option to pay later amid the increased demand for fintech services.

The fintech industry in Egypt has been booming over the past few years, with key players like Fawry, MoneyFellows, PayMob, and Yomken leading the scene. Fintech start-ups seek to capitalise on the opportunity of serving the unbanked or underbanked, generate different modes of lending, and provide more lending and payment options for employee payrolls.

The widespread growth of fintech companies was the leading driver behind the recent laws that are expected to accelerate the growth of the fintech landscape even further.

Last September, the Egyptian cabinet drafted a new law that enables the central bank to give banking licenses to fintech companies. Another new law for the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) is expected to facilitate the regulations required for new fintech companies. 

These laws don’t represent all of the actions the Egyptian government has taken to support the growth of the fintech industry in the country. Recently, the government released a fintech regulatory sandbox that gives the opportunity to fintech startup founders to experiment with their ideas in a suitable work environment.

In addition, the cabinet converted the historic Central Bank of Egypt building into a fintech hub and launched the Fintech Egypt platform. It has also introduced a fintech regulatory sandbox to allow startups and founders to test their fintech ideas in a controlled environment.