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UAE-based Fintech Galaxy acquires Egypt’s Underlie

By Pramod Kumar
Unsplash.com
Turkish investors have increased their investment in Egypt, with 35 companies employing 70,000 Egyptians

UAE-based Fintech Galaxy has acquired Underlie, an Egypt-based open banking platform offering application programming interfaces (APIs) to banks and businesses. 

The deal will help set up the company’s open finance and banking across the region, develop and launch new digital solutions and push financial inclusion forward.

No financial details were given.

Egypt is quickly becoming a flourishing fintech hub bolstered by 230 percent growth in cashless payments. The local open finance market is expected to grow by 25 percent annually during the next five years, Fintech Galaxy said in a statement. 

Egypt has almost 39 banks nationwide, which presents an opportunity for fast-tracking the implementation of the open API standard.

“Underlie’s expertise in building open banking APIs and knowledge of the local market will help us speed up our Egypt market penetration, boost the expansion in the region and release countless opportunities to create new open banking/open finance-enabled use cases,” said Riyadh Al Zamil, chairman of Fintech Galaxy. 

Al Zamil added that all of Underlie’s current employees have been retained.

Mirna Sleiman, CEO and founder of Fintech Galaxy, said cross-border collaboration is key to moving the needle on financial inclusion in Egypt and beyond.

Fintech Galaxy operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon and Moldova.

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