Acacia Ventures, an Egyptian early-stage venture capital firm, has finalized an investment in Menthum, a Cairo-based digital savings platform, joining a pre-seed round that also included A15 and a number of famous angel investors.
Menthum is a business-to-business and business-to-consumer digital savings platform that offers people and businesses an innovative method to invest in safe treasury bills (T-bills) via a money market fund.
Menthum, which is licensed and regulated by Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), has created the country’s first digital money market fund in collaboration with a major investment manager.
Given the difficulty involved with established routes, traditional money market funds are typically inaccessible to Egyptians.
The required trips to (perennially crowded) physical bank branches, inadequate customer service and customer hand-holding, longer cycle to purchase/redeem fund certificates with rigid time windows, the demand to open an account at the bank to be prepared to buy the fund, high minimum investment needed, banks’ (sometimes) inability to allow fresh money because of the regulatory ceiling, and so on are all examples of friction.
With its technology and unique process flow, Menthum re-invented the money market fund, making it easy and accessible to anyone.
Menthum has established the secure money market fund as an excellent alternative to traditional bank accounts for people as well as businesses, with high returns, immediate liquidity, and a user-friendly mobile application.
Menthum has created an easy-to-use mobile application as well as a customer-focused strategy. Individuals sign up for the Menthum mobile app using their cellphone number and scan their National ID; the software instantly retrieves the ID data.
The account is activated once the Menthum staff has completed the KYC screening process. Customers can fund their Menthum accounts by transferring funds from their bank accounts in Egypt.
There is no minimum purchase amount: clients can begin with as little as one Egyptian pound. They can withdraw money from Menthum at any moment and transfer it back to their bank account, with no lock-in period.
Money in a Menthum account is placed in a safe money market fund, which yields nearly twice as much as a conventional savings bank account.
The platform also allows small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and major organizations to invest in its money market fund, allowing them to improve their working capital return.
Menthum first appeared in app stores in November of last year. Himanshu Shrimali and Ismail Sarhank, both senior professionals, co-founded the venture.
Shrimali has more than two decades of banking and financial services experience, most recently as Head of Retail Banking at Arab African International Bank.
Sarhank has spent the last decade in the financial services industry, most recently as the Deputy CEO of IBAG for Money Transfer Solutions.
“We are thrilled to be investing in a company that is paving a new path to capital for Egypt,” Acasia Ventures Managing Partner Aly El Shalakany remarked.
“Given Menthum’s solid team, the traction it has gained thus far, and its visionary roadmap, we firmly believe that the company could reshape the concept of savings tools in the country and tangibly contribute to Egypt’s financial inclusion mandate while providing alternative savings vehicles to a wide range of customer segments.”
“The people behind Acasia Ventures have been the founding pillars of the startup ecosystem in Egypt,” Shrimali said.
“We are excited to use their extensive knowledge of the scene and industry, as well as their portfolio companies, to collaborate with like-minded partners to make a positive impact.”
The funds will be used to expand Menthum’s personnel across several departments, as well as for client acquisition, brand building, and the development of the company’s IT infrastructure. This is Menthum’s first round of fundraising.
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