Egyptian fintech startup Raseedi has acquired counterpart Kashat in an equity deal to broaden its product offerings and introduce instant loans.
Founded in 2018 by Ahmed Atalla and Samuel Samy, Raseedi offers underbanked users a dialler to make cheaper calls, receive saving tips, make payments and borrow Airtime and bills instantly without a credit history.
Kashat, meanwhile, was founded by Karim Nour and Sumair Farooqui, also in 2018, and instantly provides small loans to the financially excluded. It has now been acquired by Raseedi in an equity deal that will allow Raseedi’s users to access and apply for instant cash loans provided by Pharos Microfinance S.A.E, a subsidiary of Kashat.
Raseedi and Kashat plan to replicate their fully digital solution across Africa and Asia to serve underbanked masses in these regions.
“Ever since we began our journey to serve underbanked masses, our dream has been to provide a fully rounded fintech solution of payments and lending to millions of underserved masses. We have built a strong credit scoring algorithm over the past years from billions of data points and daily behaviour analysis of over one million Raseedi app users,” Atalla said.
“After growing our payments product to double-digit throughput growth per annum, now is the time to offer the market a new and unprecedented lending product. Imagine applying, going through a fully digital eKYC, and receiving your cash loan in your wallet within seconds. With this great milestone, we can say those who have never been given a credit score can now be part of Egypt’s financial inclusion movement that has been on the top of the Egyptian government’s agenda. We look forward to working with the Kashat team and the FRA on this breakthrough product and offering.”
Nour said the deal unified efforts to further scale financial inclusion in Egypt and beyond.
“The ability to easily lend money to the masses will be expanded, and Raseedi, along with Kashat, through its subsidiary Pharos Microfinance S.A.E., will become Egypt’s only financial service provider to offer nanoloans at scale, and that was purposefully built for the task,” he said.
“This deal is important because the companies involved are true big data and artificial intelligence players and are both home-grown. It is refreshing that this will create a true centre of excellence in both the delivery of innovative financial services and AI. We are excited at what Raseedi and Kashat can and will do in the future, at home and across the region.”
