Former Network International Executives have Secured $6 Million to Fund Enza, a Fintech Company Providing Services to African Banks

Two former Network International executive directors have received $6m in seed funding to launch fintech firm Enza, with a view to revolutionising how payments are processed across African banks and businesses. Local Hany Fekry and Hamish Houston, who both worked in senior roles at Network International, are set to launch a company that will make payments more mobile and relevant to the African market.

This in turn came from the experiences of the founders at Network International where they realised there was a gap in financial services in particular for the banks and fintech across Africa. Network International was really focused on building an excellent payments network, but Fekry and Houston saw an opportunity to fill a gap in the market, and we decided to quit our post at Network International to leave Enza which officially launched in January 2023.

Enza’s $6 million fund will be used to develop infrastructure that will support both banks and fintech firms. Unlike many other companies that focus solely on card payments or merchant services, Enza focuses on taking a wide view. Enza’s platform offers offerings to banks and fintech firms on the issuing side while providing services to small businesses and merchants on the accept side. The company hopes that consumers across the continent will have easier options to pay for purchases via cards, mobile wallets, real-time transfers or even QR codes.

Former network international executives fund Enza

The founders say the payment method is just the first step. By allowing companies to accept payments more easily, Enza will allow banks and other fintechs to offer additional services like loans, savings accounts and insurance. “The payment is the gateway, ” said Andrew Key, an executive director at Enza. “But the real value is in the data and the services you can build on top of that.”

Enza focused its initial efforts on the three largest markets in Africa: Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, which are some of the continent’s largest financial ecosystems and are the primary focus regions for Enza’s growth. Today the company has secured several partnerships with a number of banks in six African countries, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria, and processes more than 10 million transactions per month through these partnerships.

To stand out in a highly competitive market that is dominated by cash transactions, 5% to 7% of cash transactions are digital, Enza has harnessed cutting-edge technology, its platform provides integration with local payment methods like Nigeria’s NIBSS and South Africa’s PayShap while also providing support for global banks like Visa and Mastercard, as well as mobile money, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and contactless payments.

The $6 million seed round was led by Algebra Ventures and Quona Capital. Alert reported that Tarek Assaad of Algebra Ventures said that in recent years Enza’s management team has pioneered many successful fintech businesses across Africa. The funding will help Enza to grow its employee base and scale up new offerings for its banking clients.

Technology is just one part of Enza, but to enable banks to restore their competitive edge against fintech companies who have been increasingly dominant in the market, “They’ve realized they gave up too much ground, ” said Houston. “We want to give them the tools to recover it. ”

Through combining their extensive experience in payments in the continent with an emphasis on quality partnerships with African banks rather than quantity, Enza was able to overcome the challenges of building a business in an already saturated market while offering a unique platform and an innovative strategy to market in Africa’s rapidly growing digital payments industry.

Was this information useful? Drop a nice comment below. You can also check out other useful contents by following us on X/Twitter @siliconafritech, Instagram @Siliconafricatech, or Facebook @SiliconAfrica.