Business · Companies · 4 hrs ago
Money Fellows brings Egypt’s rotating savings circles online
Money Fellows is an Egyptian fintech built around gameya, a traditional way for people to save and borrow together.
In a gameya, members contribute the same amount regularly, and each member takes a turn receiving the pooled money.
The system relies on members trusting one another to keep contributing, a commitment that is harder to maintain when participants do not know each other.
Founder Ahmed Wadi began the business after encountering difficulties getting credit without a local credit history while living in Germany.
People in Egypt already understood the savings-circle model, so Money Fellows could focus on making it digital rather than explaining a new way to save.
The company has attracted more than one million registrations and has recently expanded beyond Egypt into Morocco.
It hopes to explore more markets in the coming years, after first working to understand its business at home.
Money Fellows is an Egyptian fintech that brings the country’s rotating savings circles, known as gameya, online.
Founder Ahmed Wadi began building the company in 2016 after encountering difficulties accessing credit in Germany.
In a gameya, members contribute the same amount regularly and take turns receiving the pooled money.
The company has attracted more than one million registrations and has expanded beyond Egypt into Morocco.
Wadi says the company focused on understanding its business in Egypt before launching in other countries.
- Who
- Money Fellows, founded by Ahmed Wadi.
- What
- It digitises gameya, a rotating savings and credit arrangement.
- When
- Wadi began building the company in 2016.
- Where
- It began in Egypt and has expanded into Morocco.
- Why
- Wadi encountered difficulty accessing credit without a local credit history and saw that people in Egypt already used savings circles.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Ahmed Wadi began building Money Fellows.
An accelerator placement at Startupbootcamp FinTech took Wadi to London.
Money Fellows had attracted over one million registrations and expanded into Morocco.
- Founder
- Ahmed Wadi
- Started building
- 2016
- Registrations
- Over one million
- Markets
- Egypt and Morocco
- Local savings circle
- Gameya
What people are saying
We were very focused on really understanding and cracking the model on a local scale before we start distracting ourselves and launching other countries