From Two-Wheels to Financial Services

MNT-Halan, a company that began as a ride-hailing app in Cairo eight years ago, has transformed into a $15.5 billion lender serving millions of customers across multiple countries. The fintech unicorn has now filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Egyptian Exchange, marking a significant milestone for African tech companies seeking to go public at home.

A Captive User Base Drives Growth

The company’s journey began in 2018 with a focus on ride-hailing services. This provided MNT-Halan with valuable operational data and access to a network of informal economy workers—particularly motorcycle and tricycle drivers—who generate consistent income.

This unique position allowed the company to:

• Build credit models based on verifiable driver earnings
• Expand into lending, payments, savings, e-commerce, and logistics services
• Serve previously underserved populations who lacked access to traditional financial institutions

Institutional Validation and Strategic Partnerships

In a recent development that underscores MNT-Halan’s progress, Egypt’s largest bank—the National Bank of Egypt—took an equity stake in the company. This represents institutional validation of the fintech’s credit model and signals growing acceptance of serving the informal economy as a viable market.

Capital Markets Innovation Through Securitisation

MNT-Halan has pioneered a capital strategy that could serve as a template for African fintech companies seeking alternatives to venture capital funding. The company increasingly relies on securitisation—bundling loan receivables into yield-bearing bonds—to finance its growth.

This approach offers several advantages:

• Reduces dependence on external equity investors
• Provides access to larger pools of debt financing
• Allows for repeated capital raises without further dilution

Other Egyptian fintechs like valU have adopted similar structures, demonstrating the potential of this model in constrained global investment environments.

Implications for African Tech Ecosystems

MNT-Halan’s IPO filing has broader implications for the African tech landscape:

• Shows that homegrown companies can achieve significant scale while remaining locally rooted
• Creates a pathway for fintechs to access public capital markets at home rather than seeking foreign listings
• Validates business models that serve underserved populations with data-driven credit solutions