Naspers unit, Egypt’s biggest bank invest in Fintech firm

A unit of Naspers, Africa’s biggest company by value, and Egypt’s largest bank invested in Lucky, to help the fintech startup in the North African nation expand in the region and the Middle East.Lucky, which counts Lorax Capital as an investor, raised $25 million in the funding round led by Nclude, the startup said in a statement. Naspers unit PayU, Global Ventures, National Bank of Egypt, Venture Souq, Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, Endeavor Catalyst, OTF, Arzan Capital and Disruptech were among the other backers. The company provides credit products and manages cashback rewards.

Lucky is “prioritising markets with a sizable population, low credit penetration and similar macroeconomic dynamics to Egypt,” co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Momtaz Moussa said in response to emailed questions.

Investors from across the globe are increasingly targeting African startups – both fintech and companies providing last-mile delivery -to capitalise on the vast numbers of both online and people without bank accounts in the continent of 1.4 billion people. Earlier this month, U.S. private equity firms Tiger Global and Avenir Growth Capital led a funding round for Kenyan e-commerce platform Sokowatch at a $625 million valuation.

JavaScript is disabled in this browser. To access this article and many more from our archive, please enable JavaScript in your browser and purchase an Insider Gold subscription.