• Egypt-based fintech Raseedi has raised $850,000 in a pre-series A round from Samurai incubate, with participation from its existing investors; 500 Global, EFG-EV and Falak Startups.
• Founded in 2018 by Ahmed Atalla and Samuel Samy, Raseedi is a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) app that helps users make cheaper calls and provides them with data-driven saving tips. The app attracts over 10 million visits monthly.

Source: WAYA

Raseedi, the mobile with over 10 million monthly visits and calls made through its dialer app, announced that it has raised $850,000 in a Pre-series A round from Samurai incubate, a European investor and with participation from all existing investors (500 Global, EFG-EV and Falak Startups).

Raseedi is taking a very unique approach towards onboarding millions of underbanked masses to the fintech boom in Egypt. In a segment where community and savings are key, the App’s entry point was helping users make cheaper calls and providing them with data driven saving tips. With an average of 120 visits per user per month for the normal user and over a 1,000 visits per user per month for the top users, introducing customers to payments and hassle free advance credit wasn’t a challenge. With only organic App communication and upselling, payments volume grew 5 times in just one month and almost 5,000 advance credit balances were given in just a few months, on the spot and fully relying on a smart inhouse scoring algorithm based on the collected telecom data.

After 3 years since their App launched, Ahmed Atalla co-founder and CEO of Raseedi notes, “Since our inception, we have focused on the masses offering them a better way to communicate cheaper. So, once an app becomes the user’s daily trusted dialer, it becomes so much more; the network or circle they trust for how they connect to their community of contacts, friends and family. Users are now calling cheaper, paying telecom/ utility bills and taking advance telecom credit but imagine if later people can communicate for FREE within this community, pay peers/ contacts and borrow from peers or even get guaranteed by members of their community to receive cash loans. Maybe sooner than later, stay tuned”

Commenting on the investment, Samuel Samy, Raseedi’s co-founder and COO and head of product notes, “We’ve always been a super lean tech startup, we only spend on people and tech never on assets or operations that’s why our goal is to create this daily product that relies completely on technology with zero dependency on any onground operation. From communication to payments to receiving instant advance credit, everything is done through an app. It’s been going great for us with 13,000 reviews of 4.3 stars on the playstore, yet the bigger challenge comes with our next scaling milestone, 100 million monthly visits from 1m monthly active users”.

Samurai Incubate said in a statement, “We strongly believe that Raseedi’s unique approach of providing the app to the unbanked in Egypt will not only allow them to use their phone easier and more affordable, but also open a gate to access to credit. The company is led by three experienced founders who have a great conviction to solve the pain points of services provided by existing telcos, and already built a talented team to execute their mission. We are happy to be on board of their journey to improve African people’s accessibility to the internet.”