Egypt-based fintech startup PayMint announced on Wednesday it had obtained a seed funding of seven figures from AUR Fintech, a subsidiary of AUR Capital. The new funding aims to support PayMint's expansion plan in fintech and SMEs financial inclusion in the local market. PayMint launched its services by 2019, providing financial technology services to small and medium-sized companies, primarily salary payments, working capital financing and supplier payments. "We are looking forward to utilising this round in our expansion plan to enhance our fintech services for SMEs and provide wide range of microfinance in addition to bill payments." Mohamed Rabie, PayMint chief executive, said. PayMint is aiming to use the new fund to expand the scope of its services to include more corporate payments and provide new services to corporate beneficiaries and other financial services that would enhance the financial inclusion of beneficiary companies or individuals. This would be in a way that promotes comprehensive and sustainable economic growth, Rabie explained. He pointed out that the company works on getting an advantage of the positive ecosystem especially in the fintech field to step further and enhance its services. PayMint plans to issue over 150,000 of Miza cards for beneficiaries through 2022 after getting needed permissions, Rabie added. Mohamed Yahya, vice chairman of Paymint, praised the steps taken by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) in light of the state's directions to support startups, including the launch of the report, which shed light on the latest developments in the fintech ecosystem in Egypt, and other CBE initiatives issued in this context. This reflects a shift from a mere vision in the future to actual deliberate steps to develop the market, link all parties to the system, and study everything related, building startups, to matters related to the founders and the requirements for building the market. Yahya forecasted that fintech market would notice huge growth rates and Fintech Egypt – the CBE initiative – will play a major role to support this sector and link the whole ecosystem together. "We believe the Future of our society is Technology, and the Future of SMEs Financial transactions is Paymint." Mohamed Farouk, chairman of AUR Fintech, said. "Small, and medium-sized enterprises account for the majority contribution to the GDP of the Egyptian economy while being a chronically underserved segment. We believe PayMint is in prime position to serve these companies and help increase the reach AUR Capital's Non-banking Financial Services offering in these segments." Mohamed Kammoura, AUR Fintech's Head of Investments, said.
