Egyptian fintech and digital investment platform Thndr has secured $20 million in its Series A fund round. The fund will be used to build a so-called ‘investment supermarket’ for consumers in the Middle East and North Africa region. The support from leading global investors is a significant endorsement of our strategy and the very clear market opportunity in the region. The funding round was led by US investment firm Tiger Global, UAE venture capital group BECO Capital, and Netherland’s Prosus Ventures.
Currently, users don’t have access to U.S. stocks. They can only use the platform to invest in the Egyptian stock market and mutual funds. It’s an entirely different use case for Bamboo and Chaka, similar platforms in Nigeria that view the provision of U.S. and foreign stocks as the best incentive to acquire users, most of which are concerned about hedging their money against inflation and currency devaluation. Thndr, offering commission-free trading, no deposit or withdrawal charges and no-account minimums allows users to trade often and hold their money for the long term. So, it has turned to subscriptions — a model Robinhood introduced in 2016, pivoting away from the commission fees it charged users — to make money. Other earning streams include revenue share agreements with asset managers running mutual funds and floats on idle cash sitting in customers’ accounts. Other investors in Thndr’s Series A round include Base Capital, firstminute and existing investors Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Raba Partnerships and JIMCO. Away from the investors and to further plans for the company, Amr highlights the importance of local Egyptian regulators in providing the license, which has enabled Thndr to scale.