MNT-Halan's valuation climbs as Al Ahly Capital invests

Published: 2026-06-09T06:59:00.000Z

Egypt's biggest fintech just got a fresh stamp of approval from the heart of its banking world. MNT-Halan has reached a $1.4 billion valuation after the first close of a round led by Al Ahly Capital, the investment arm of the National Bank of Egypt.

Egypt's biggest fintech name just got a fresh stamp of approval from the heart of the country's traditional banking world. MNT-Halan has reached a valuation of $1.4 billion after the first close of a new investment round led by Al Ahly Capital, the investment arm of the National Bank of Egypt. The deal went through once all the required regulatory approvals were in hand, and the company says a second close is still to come as the round continues. For a business that crossed the billion dollar mark only a few years ago, the step up signals that investors still see plenty of room to run. The choice of lead investor is the part worth dwelling on. Al Ahly Capital sits inside the National Bank of Egypt, the country's largest state owned lender, so this is not a typical venture firm chasing the next hot app. It is a pillar of the old financial establishment putting serious money behind a technology driven challenger. That kind of pairing says something about where things are heading, with traditional banks increasingly choosing to partner with or invest in fintech players rather than simply compete against them. For Al Ahly Capital, the logic is that backing a business built around financial inclusion fits its private equity strategy and supports Egypt's wider digital transformation push. MNT-Halan, for its part, plans to put most of the proceeds toward growing its operations at home while feeding its broader regional ambitions. The company has come a long way from its Egyptian roots. It now operates in both Egypt and Türkiye, owns a specialised bank serving micro and small enterprises in Pakistan, and has been steadily building a presence across Gulf markets. That geographic spread, layered on top of a core lending business, is what increasingly makes it look less like a single country startup and more like a regional financial platform. The product range backs that up. Founded by Mounir Nakhla, MNT-Halan runs a sprawling digital ecosystem covering business and consumer loans, payments, e-wallets, savings, investments and e-commerce, all under one roof. It became Egypt's first fintech unicorn in 2023 and has kept expanding through a mix of organic growth, acquisitions and new market entries, a strategy this latest raise is designed to keep fueling. The regional read is straightforward. Across the Middle East and North Africa, fintech remains one of the most heavily backed corners of the startup world, and Egypt in particular stands out for the sheer size of its underbanked population. With a young, mobile heavy market and a government keen on digitising finance, the opportunity is enormous. A homegrown player attracting a major bank's investment arm at a rising valuation suggests the sector's most established names are consolidating their lead even as overall funding conditions stay cautious.