Mastercard’s global platform and commitment to fintech is a great complement to the Nclude strategy.
Mastercard has announced a strategic investment in Nclude, a FinTech-focused VC investment platform launched in partnership with Egypt’s leading national banks – Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, and Banque Du Caire – to boost Egypt’s vibrant FinTech ecosystem further and support the country’s digital transformation journey.
The partnership will deepen financial inclusion across Egypt by investing in promising early-and-growth-stage FinTech and FinTech-enabled companies.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is leading a vision to position the country as an innovation hub for FinTechs across the Middle East and Africa by upskilling youths to close talent gaps, improving access to capital, and developing technology infrastructure. These efforts are geared to rapidly increasing the financial inclusion rate to benefit all Egyptians, only over 56% of whom are included in the formal economy. It also focuses on filling the huge SME lending gap in Egypt and elevating the quality of financial services offered in the country to businesses and individuals.
Nclude was launched in March 2022 upon approval by the CBE and initially saw an investment of $100 million from the 3 national banks and Egyptian Banks Company (EBC) and eFinance. With Mastercard, a pioneer in advancing financial inclusion in Egypt and the world, joining in, Nclude Fund is quickly becoming a go-to fund for FinTechs looking to grow their operations and services.