MNT-Halan secures $400M investment, becoming Africa's latest unicorn

MNT-Halan is Africa's latest unicorn!

The Egyptian fintech and e-commerce company secured over $400 million in equity and debt financing from local and global investors. Chimera, an Abu Dhabi investment company invested more than $200 million in equity in exchange for over 20% of the company.

In addition, the company is in the advanced stages with leading international investors to raise $60 million of primary capital. Following the completion of these investments, MNT-Halan’s valuation will exceed $1 billion—becoming Egypt's latest unicorn, after Fawry.

"We are thrilled to be part of Egypt’s greatest fintech success story. MNT-Halan’s upward trajectory and momentum reflect the management team’s realization of its extraordinary vision to transform a high-touch business by seamlessly infusing an unparalleled proprietary tech platform while increasing product depth for its target customer segment," Seif Fikry, CEO of Chimera Abu Dhabi, said.

According to a statement by the MNT-Halan seen by Benjamindada.com, these investments demonstrate continued confidence in MNT-Halan's value proposition, management team and superior technology, and will also enable international growth. This funding follows a $120 million investment in Q3 2021 by other major global and regional growth investors, including Development Partners International (DPI), Apis Growth Fund II, and Lorax Capital Partners.

Committed to bringing seamless financial services to the unbanked and underbanked customers in Egypt and the surrounding region, MNT-Halan's digital ecosystem includes business loans, consumer finance, payments and e-commerce, all of which are backed by Neuron, the company's proprietary technology.

"As one of the region's premier and most progressive investors, Chimera Abu Dhabi brings a unique and dedicated understanding of our business. Having the backing of Chimera Abu Dhabi is of significant support to the execution of our strategy," MNT-Halan Founder and CEO, Mounir Nakhla, said. "The timing of the transaction is also a testament to our ability to significantly increase our revenues and open new revenue streams while growing our bottom line, despite the macroeconomic situation."

I am excited about what lies ahead as we continue to grow both organically and inorganically by offering cutting-edge financial products and services locally and internationally to empower the underserved. — Mounir Nakhla

The company also announced two securitizations totalling $140 million through subsidiaries Tasaheel Microfinance Company (Tasaheel) and Halan Consumer Finance (Halan) with Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt's largest private sector bank. Tasaheel has securitized $100 million of its loan book in the second issuance of its securitization program.

Halan Consumer Finance has securitized $40 million of its loan book in its first securitization since its start of operations in 2021. Both issuances were over-subscribed. The offerings reflect the high quality, diversity, and granularity of the combined securitized loan books, consisting of 246,000 contracts and a robust cash pay-back ability. The proceeds will fuel the company’s growing loan book, considering the increasing demand in light of the current inflationary environment.

MNT-Halan has the capacity to further securitize up to $250 million in its securitization program. Both securitizations are divided into four tranches, each of which has been rated Prime 1 for the first three and A for the fourth by MERIS (Middle East Rating & Investor Service). In addition to CIB, participating regional and local financial institutions included Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Al Baraka Bank, Arab Africa International Bank, Agricultural Bank of Egypt, ABC Bank, NI Capital, National Bank of Egypt and the Housing and Development Bank.

White & Case, Shearman and Sterling, Lexence, and Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy served as legal advisors on the investment transactions. CIB served as financial advisor and general arranger of the securitizations with the National Bank of Egypt serving as co-financial advisor and underwriter. Arab Africa International Bank and NI Capital served as underwriters.

Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy served as legal advisors on the securitizations. Meanwhile, Eterna Partners served as communications advisors.

What became MNT-Halan?

In 2017, Mounir Nakhla and Ahmed Mohsen started Halan as a ride-hailing and delivery app offering two and three-wheeler services to customers in Egypt. Since then, it has provided other features, including wallets, bill payment services, e-commerce with buy now, pay later (BNPL) and micro and consumer loans, all in a bid to become a super app.

Then in June 2021, Netherlands-based MNT Investments BV entered a share swap agreement with the Egyptian super app to accelerate the progress of its payments and lending arm, especially in BNPL across Egypt and the MENA region.

Before the merger, MNT acquired the shares of Raseedy, the first independent digital wallet in Egypt licensed by its Central Bank to disburse, collect and transfer money digitally through mobile applications.

As MNT-Halan, it has also obtained micro, consumer and nano finance licenses to provide services to both businesses and consumers across Egypt. This has enabled the company to build a fintech ecosystem that connects consumers, merchants and micro-enterprises via a digital platform and payment solutions.

As a business and consumer lender, MNT-Halan offers BNPL services, nano loans, microfinance, SME lending, payroll lending and light-vehicle finance.

Its digital payments ecosystem provides services around loan disbursement and collection, peer-to-peer transfers, payroll disbursement, remittances and bill payments. Meanwhile, in mobility, MNT-Halan provides courier, delivery and ride-hailing services.