Cairo-based fintech Dayra has joined Y Combinator and secured $3 million in a pre-seed round that includes a mix of equity and debt financing, The round includes investment from Tanmiya Capital Ventures, EFG EV, EFG Hermes, and different angel investors.
Dayra raised much of the funds’ last year and closed the round with investment from Y Combinator by securing $3 million in a pre-seed round that includes a mix of equity and debt financing, The round includes investment from Tanmiya Capital Ventures, EFG EV, EFG Hermes, and different angel investors.
Founded in early 2020 by Omar Ekram who was previously a private equity investor, Dayra provides financial services to various companies and their workforce through APIs and its mobile app. He stated that Tanmiya’s participation was 10 per cent of the entire round.
Dayra has started with a focus on gig workers who work as independent contractors for online platforms (think drivers of ride-hailing services, couriers of food delivery apps, etc.), and micro-businesses (like neighbourhood grocery stores, small restaurants. Dayra helps the majority of gig workers in Egypt who are unbanked and financially excluded to access the digital platforms they work with in order to get paid for their services.
According to the CEO “Only 30 per cent of 105 million Egyptians are banked, leaving the majority of the country unbanked and reliant on cash transactions. Requirements such as proof of income by the banking sector make it hard for gig-workers and micro-business owners to open bank accounts,”
Omar said “We are thrilled to be part of YC’s W21 batch and to close our pre-seed round. This is a key milestone in realizing our vision of providing the most accessible financial services solution in MENA, and delivering digital financial services to millions of financially excluded individuals, leveraging on our strategic partnership with EFG Hermes, starting with Egypt.”
Omar was previously the Managing Partner at Tanmiya Capital Ventures, a firm that invested in this round. He started off as a self-taught developer and started coding in this early life, In addition to leading the company, he also wrote the code for the MVP.
