In a fintech landscape where many digital lenders lean heavily on borrowed capital, Cairo-based MoneyFellows is proving that profitability and scale don’t always come with balance sheet risk. The company has raised $13 million in a pre-Series C round to accelerate its regional expansion, marking a strategic pivot from domestic consolidation to cross-border growth.
The round was led by Al Mada Ventures and Nclude by DPI, with participation from Partech Africa and CommerzVentures, bringing MoneyFellows’ total funding to over $60 million.
At the heart of MoneyFellows’ model is a digital take on the Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA)—a centuries-old financial system deeply embedded in communities across Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Known by different names—gam’eya in Egypt, esusu in Nigeria, daret in Morocco—the core structure remains the same: group-based savings with rotating payouts.
CEO Ahmed Wadi says the company has cracked the challenge of digitizing this informal model while maintaining low operational overhead and avoiding dependency on external capital. “We’ve lent out billions without working capital exposure—and done so profitably,” Wadi explains.
MoneyFellows functions as a platform, not a lender. Users join or form “circles” in which members contribute fixed monthly amounts and receive a lump-sum payout in rotation. The company leverages behavioral data, credit scores, and income profiles to match savers and borrowers, stepping in only when a group lacks a full roster—an intervention that currently accounts for under 10% of active circles.
With over 8.5 million users in Egypt and an average user payout that has nearly doubled over two years, the model has demonstrated stickiness and viral growth, especially among higher-income brackets. The company has also begun layering financial services like a prepaid card product, with plans for insurance, payroll, and remittance offerings.
The upcoming launch in Morocco—backed by regulatory approval and strategic partnerships—will test the portability of MoneyFellows’ ROSCA engine. With its large unbanked population and cultural familiarity with collective savings, Morocco offers a promising next step. But as the company eyes broader African and South Asian markets, it must navigate regions where informal finance isn’t as prevalent or where banking is more entrenched.
Still, MoneyFellows appears undeterred. “This model is hard to replicate, but we believe it’s ready to travel,” Wadi says.