Egypt’s Flend Raises $3M Seed Round to Expand Digital SME Lending

STARTUP VENTURE CAPITALJuly 23, 2025 at 8:33 AM UTC

TLDR

Egypt-based fintech Flend has raised $3 million in a seed funding round combining equity and debt to scale its digital lending platform for small and medium-sized enterprises
The equity round was led by Egypt Ventures, with participation from Camel Ventures, Sukna Ventures, Plus VC, Banque Misr, and family offices
The funding will support Flend’s goal to disburse EGP 1 billion in SME loans over the next 12 months, expand its team, and strengthen its technology infrastructure

Egypt-based fintech Flend has raised $3 million in a seed funding round combining equity and debt to scale its digital lending platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The equity round was led by Egypt Ventures, with participation from Camel Ventures, Sukna Ventures, Plus VC, Banque Misr, and family offices including El Sewedy and Baalbaki. MSMEDA and local banks provided the debt financing.

Founded by Ahmed Zaki, Nehal Helmy, and Saif Edeen El Bendari, Flend is licensed by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) as a digital non-banking financial institution (Digital NBFI). The company offers fully digital short-term working capital loans to SMEs, using embedded finance and direct integration with more than 20 platforms operating across agri-food, healthcare, e-commerce, and other supply chains.

The funding will support Flend’s goal to disburse EGP 1 billion in SME loans over the next 12 months, expand its team, and strengthen its technology infrastructure. The platform manages the full credit lifecycle—from onboarding and scoring to disbursement and repayment—through paperless, legally binding digital contracts.

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Key Takeaways

Flend’s model aims to solve one of Egypt’s largest financial bottlenecks—access to working capital for SMEs. With a $50 billion credit gap, traditional lending models often fail to meet the needs of fast-moving supply chain businesses. Flend’s embedded finance approach allows it to meet SMEs directly where they operate, integrating into sector-specific platforms to offer tailored loans with speed and efficiency. The mixed equity-debt structure of the seed round reflects investor confidence in both Flend’s growth trajectory and the robustness of its loan book. Backing from public and private stakeholders also highlights growing interest in digitizing Egypt’s informal and underbanked SME sector. As demand for embedded financial services rises, Flend is positioning itself as an infrastructure layer between lenders and real-economy platforms—bringing digital lending into the operational core of Egypt’s SME ecosystem.

Venture Capital

Flend

SMEs

Credit

Fintech

Egypt

Egypt Ventures