Khazna
Cairo-based fintech offering salary advances, payroll-linked credit, buy now pay later and bill payments to underbanked workers in Egypt, with a planned expansion into Saudi Arabia.
Industry: Consumer fintech | Location: Cairo, Egypt | Founded: 2019
About Khazna
Khazna is a Cairo-based fintech that provides credit and payment services to low- and middle-income workers and other underbanked consumers in Egypt through a mobile app. Sources describe salary advances, general-purpose credit, buy now pay later, bill payments, microloans, digital payments, payroll-backed and pension-based lending, and a Meeza prepaid card issued with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.
TechCrunch and Daba Finance give 2019 as the founding year, while Wamda and Forbes Middle East say the company launched in 2020. Omar Saleh is co-founder and chief executive. Ahmed Wagueeh is co-founder and chief technology officer, and Wamda names Fatimah El Shenawy as the third co-founder. Wagueeh studied computer engineering at Cairo University and worked at Intel, Valeo and IBM, according to Enterprise in 2022.
The first product was a salary cash advance distributed through employers as a benefit, according to Accion. Wagueeh said in 2022 that Khazna works with employers to verify employee data and credit scores and with about 100 merchants for buy now pay later.
Khazna had more than 150,000 active users in March 2022, according to Wamda. TechCrunch reported in February 2025 that it had over 500,000 users, about 100,000 of them receiving payroll through Khazna and about 400,000 using its lending, and that Saleh said the lending product had reached break-even. Forbes Middle East ranked it 45th on its 2025 Fintech 50 list.
The seed round, led by Algebra Ventures with Accion Venture Lab, was announced in February 2020 without an amount. In March 2022 Khazna announced a USD 38 million Series A of equity and debt, with Quona Capital as lead equity investor and Lendable providing the debt. In February 2025 it announced a USD 16 million pre-Series B from Quona, Speedinvest, Aljazira Capital, anb Seed Fund, DisrupTech Ventures, ICU Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures and SANAD Fund for MSME. TechCrunch put total funding at over USD 63 million.
In 2025 Khazna said it planned to apply for a digital banking licence in Egypt and to expand into Saudi Arabia.
Leadership
- Omar Saleh, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
- Ahmed Wagueeh, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer
- Fatma El Shenawy, Co-founder