In its latest round, PayTic raised $4.4 million in fresh funding to deepen its operations in the Middle East and Africa. 

AfricInvest led the round, joined by Axian Venture Lab and Mistral VC. Existing backers like CDG Invest, BVC, Concrete VC, and ICP Ventures also returned. This brings the company’s total funding to $7.4 million.

Founded in Casablanca in 2020 by Imad Bouhmadi, PayTic was built not to impress consumers, but to rescue banks, fintechs, and card issuers from the chaos of their own operations.

While many startups focus on the front-end user experience, PayTic goes where the real problems live—in the backend, where reconciliation, chargebacks, fraud checks, and compliance live and breathe.

Bouhmadi calls it “the operational aftermath of payments.”

This isn’t a space most people want to think about. But for institutions juggling multiple card programmes, payment rails, and regulatory obligations, it’s hell. PayTic’s solution? An end-to-end platform that doesn’t just integrate with existing systems—it practically replaces the manual processes still plaguing the industry. And it doesn’t need code to do it.

“The problem we’re solving is largely invisible to consumers but mission-critical for fintechs, banks, and card issuers,” Bouhmadi said. “We’ve built a no-code operating system for payment operations.”

That system gives clients a clean dashboard to handle everything from line-by-line invoice analysis to auto-generated BIN sponsor invoices. It’s not classy, but it’s transformative. Tasks that once took hours or even days can be done in minutes—with far less human error.

Unlike competitors like UK-based Kani Payments, which zeroes in on reconciliation alone, PayTic is gunning for full spectrum dominance. “They focus on one piece of the process,” Bouhmadi said. “We’ve built an end-to-end solution that’s integration-free, no-code, and instantly usable across the operational spectrum.”

Right now, PayTic works with more than 20 institutions spread across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Some names include Morocco’s CIH Bank, CFG Bank, and BNI Madagascar. OGS, the processing engine behind Bank of Africa, is also on that list. It’s also in talks with players in Nigeria, a market Bouhmadi calls “one of the most exciting fintech ecosystems on the continent.”

The revenue model is a mix of SaaS subscription fees, volume-based pricing, and revenue-sharing agreements. It’s flexible, which makes sense for a tool designed to untangle complexity.

Is the market big enough? It’s bigger than it looks. With Africa’s payments sector becoming more layered, the old ways of doing things simply don’t scale. Without operational automation, banks and fintechs risk drowning in their own data and red tape.

PayTic sees this—and it’s betting the future of finance lies not in the user interface, but in the machinery underneath it.

This funding is not just about growth. It’s about leverage—getting the product into more hands, building stronger partnerships, and pushing further into underserved regions. Bouhmadi said, “We view PayTic as a key enabler to our ability to grow our business. As we add more card programs, we will be sure to have PayTic there to help us manage the back-office program functions.”

It’s an unglamorous mission. But if PayTic delivers, it could become the quiet innovation behind the working African and Middle Eastern financial infrastructure.

The round was led by Flourish Ventures, a global investor in financial technology, with participation from Vision Ventures and Arab Bank’s Xelerate, along with individual backers like Marqeta founder Jason Gardner.

This funding comes just a year after MoneyHash secured $4.5 million in seed funding, bringing its total capital raised to over $12 million since its launch in 2021. The company plans to use the funds to strengthen its foothold in the MEA region and explore new opportunities in other emerging markets.

Addressing Payment Challenges in Emerging Markets

Payment processes in emerging markets are notoriously complex, with high transaction failure rates and limited standardisation among providers. 

Businesses usually face challenges in integrating multiple payment systems to meet customer and regulatory requirements. These challenges are particularly pronounced in regions like Africa and the Middle East, where diverse payment methods and currencies make scaling difficult.

MoneyHash aims to simplify this sector by providing an all-in-one payment operating system. Through a unified API, businesses can simplify pay-in and pay-out operations, optimise transaction performance, and access features like fraud prevention, customisable checkouts, and detailed reporting tools. 

The platform also supports subscription management, virtual wallets, and payment links, giving companies a thorough solution to manage their payment needs efficiently.

Initially targeting small merchants, MoneyHash has pivoted towards larger enterprises in 2024, launching an enterprise suite that now accounts for 35% of its client base—a threefold increase this year. 

Well-known customers include Tamara, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) giant, and Kitopi, a leader in the cloud kitchen sector. These partnerships have contributed to a fourfold increase in processing volumes and a threefold rise in revenue over the past year, according to CEO Nader Abdelrazik.

“In emerging markets, digital payments represent only a fraction of total transaction volume, suggesting massive growth potential in the coming decade,” Abdelrazik said. “We’ve built MoneyHash specifically to help merchants overcome these complex challenges and turn payments from a liability into a strategic advantage.”

Flourish Ventures, the lead investor, emphasised the impact of MoneyHash’s platform. “The team’s expertise in payment solutions and customer-centric approach places them as a leader in emerging markets,” said Ameya Upadhyay, a venture partner at Flourish Ventures who will join MoneyHash’s board.

The company has over 300 pre-integrated APIs covering more than 100 markets, allowing businesses to connect seamlessly with local and international payment providers like Adyen, Stripe, Fawry, and Mono. 

This network has helped MoneyHash improve payment efficiency and accessibility across the region.

Headquartered in New York but with a team spanning nine countries, MoneyHash plans to allocate its new funding towards deepening its presence in MEA while laying the groundwork for expansion into additional emerging markets. 

With the leverage of its unique expertise and strong investor backing, the company aims to drive innovation in the fintech space, supporting businesses to overcome challenges in operations and scale more effectively.

Founded in 2021 by Nader Abdelrazik and Mustafa Eid, MoneyHash is a payment orchestration platform targeting the needs of emerging markets.

The company provides businesses with a unified platform to manage complex payment ecosystems, optimise performance metrics, and bolster growth opportunities.

The Series A round, which takes the startup’s total funding above $30 million, was led by Altos Ventures, trusting Ziina’s business model and ability to scale, especially in a global funding slowdown.

Other investors included Activant Capital, Avenir Growth, Fintech Collective, FJ Labs, Jabbar Internet Group, Middle East Venture Partners, and Y Combinator. 

Since its inception in 2020, Ziina has evolved from a peer-to-peer payment app into a comprehensive financial platform focused on the needs of both individuals and businesses. 

Initially gaining traction with its consumer-focused app, the startup has now grown its user base to 50,000 active customers, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

This growth has been largely driven by the company’s focus on addressing the unique financial needs of SMEs in the UAE, a segment that accounts for over 94% of all companies in the country and contributes approximately 60% to the nation’s GDP.

Ziina’s latest funding round follows its move towards serving the SME market. The company’s platform, which now includes payment gateways, point-of-sale solutions, and integrations with major e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify, has enabled businesses to simplify their payment processes and track financial transactions more efficiently. 

With SMEs in the UAE increasingly adopting digital payments — 77% as of 2023 — Ziina is capitalising on this trend.

The company’s CEO, Faisal Toukan, spoke on the factors that made Ziina attractive to investors. These include the strong growth of the SME sector in the UAE, the company’s product-led expansion strategy, and its recently acquired central bank license. 

This license, a stored value facility (SVF) permit from the Central Bank of the UAE, allows Ziina to offer a wider range of financial services, excluding lending, and to generate revenue from customer deposits on the platform.

Ziina’s product development has been driven by the need to simplify financial management for businesses. The platform offers transparency in pricing, with no hidden fees and straightforward transaction costs. 

Again, the user-friendly dashboard allows businesses to easily monitor and reconcile payments, both online and offline. 

The startup’s innovative approach has led to rapid adoption, with Ziina processing approximately 1,050 dirhams every 60 seconds and projected to handle 1.1 billion dirhams in annualised transaction volume by the end of the year.

Ziina plans to continue scaling its operations and expanding its product offerings. The company is on track to introduce ZiiCard, an expense management tool, further enhancing its appeal to SMEs. 

With the growth of the fintech industry in the Middle East, Ziina aims to reach 200,000 active business users within the next four years.

The funding round was co-led by Egypt-based venture capital firms DisrupTech Ventures, Algebra Ventures, and Lorax Capital Partners, with participation from One Stop Capital and MDP.

Connect Money, launched earlier this year, aims to capitalize on the growing popularity of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platforms by enabling trade companies to issue white-label debit and credit cards. 

These cards provide customers with access to various financial services, including payments and credit, without the need for businesses to develop their own technology infrastructure or navigate complex regulatory approvals.

Co-founded by Ayman Essawy (CEO), Wadi Jalil (CTO), and Abdelaziz Sarhan (COO), Connect Money seeks to help businesses effectively bank their customers. “We have seen this in Amazon with payment services and in many other digital platforms. We believe that even traditional businesses are capable of banking their customers and increasing consumer stickiness, to eventually become real banks,” said Essawy. 

The platform offers a one-stop solution for both traditional and digital businesses, allowing them to avoid substantial capital expenditures. Instead, businesses pay a subscription fee per card per month, while Connect Money manages the backend operations. 

The company’s services include card issuance, Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, customer support, and mobile banking app development.

Essawy, who previously co-founded the consumer app LuckyOne and was involved in launching the loyalty platform DSquares, highlighted several use cases for Connect Money’s platform.

In the agricultural sector, for example, supply chain companies can use white-label cards to become banks for farmers, facilitating embedded finance solutions that connect businesses to cash users.

The BaaS market is projected to grow greatly, with a recent Allied Market Research report estimating its value to reach $22.6 billion by 2032, driven by a 19.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). 

Connect Money’s entry into this space aligns with global trends where businesses increasingly adopt BaaS platforms to enhance their financial service offerings, grow revenues, and improve customer experience and retention.

Connect Money joins a nascent but growing list of African fintechs in the BaaS sector, including Nigeria’s Anchor, Maplerad, and Bloc. These platforms are making financial services more accessible by enabling businesses to provide tailored financial solutions to their customers.

Swypex, an all-in-one financial management platform with corporate cards and spending management tools designed specifically for businesses, will leverage the fund to enhance corporate finance in Egypt.

Unlike traditional options, Swypex allows companies to issue an “unlimited” number of cards for employees and set granular spending controls. The platform integrates with the government’s e-invoicing system, providing businesses with a consolidated view of all expenses and spending data.

“We saw a gap in the market for a comprehensive B2B solution,” said Ahmad Mokhtar, CEO of Swypex, who co-founded the company with Tarek Mokhtar (CPO) and Sasan Hezarkhani (CTO). “Businesses were stuck using outdated banking services or relying heavily on cash, leading to inefficiencies and lack of visibility over spending.”

Swypex’s entry into the market coincides with a push by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to reduce cash-based transactions and encourage digital payments. Initiatives like the Instant Payment Network (IPN) have created a favourable environment for fintech companies like Swypex to offer innovative financial solutions.

The $4 million funding, along with the founders’ experience in developing products for global tech giants like Twitter and PlayStation, positions Swypex for efficient growth.

The company is targeting a slice of the Egyptian card and payments market valued at over $10 billion, which is expected to grow 10% annually for the next three years.

With its focus on user experience, advanced spending controls, and data-driven insights, Swypex seeks to disrupt the corporate card industry in Egypt and potentially become the go-to company across the Middle East.