Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Fawry - the Egyptian payments platform. We’ll explore the Fawry story across 6 areas:

Egypt context
Founding and early history
Fundraising & Growth
Product & monetization strategy
Competitive positioning
Overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on October 17, 2021

Companies discussed: Fawry, Egypt National Post Office (ENPO), IFC, Helios Investment Partners, Raya Holding, Technology Development Fund (Ideavelopers), Arab African International Bank, HSBC, Bank of Alexandria (Alexbank), Paymob, Banque Misr, Ebtiikar, Khales, Bee, Masary, Meeza, elmenus & Cashi (alsoug).

Business concepts discussed: Payment Platforms, IPOs, startup incubation, African conglomerates, DFIs (Development Finance Institutions) & FinTech monetization strategy / Personal Finance OS

Conversation highlights:

(01:20) - Fawry context
(04:00) - Egypt context, startups, financial inclusion
(23:59) - Ashraf Sabry background
(29:38) - Fawry founding and early history
(38:15) - Fundraising and early growth
(49:38) - Fawry IPO
(52:40) - Product strategy
(1:14:26) - Monetization strategy
(1:19:30) - Competition in Egypt
(1:27:07) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
(1:35:45) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
(1:45:00) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Chris Sacca on 20 Minute VC - Wow. Chris Sacca is amazing. I can listen to him talk for hours.
Recommendation: Ben Horowitz - What You Do Is Who You Are. Great book about how to think about the tradeoffs when creating culture in a company. Has some awesome stories.
Recommendation: Acquired episode on Oprah - Spoke about Oprah's legendary story. Wow
Small win: Got ticket to Wizkid show later tonight in Miami. Good times

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Kanye West 2013 interview on Breakfast Club, Wizkid - Anoti & Keychron K2 Mechanical Keyboard
Small win: Had crypto-curious friends over for dinner and now I’m crypto-curious

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#40: Fawry - How the Egyptian payments platform became one of the largest Tech companies in Africa