The Fintech Startup Bankrolling Egypt’s Economic Backbone

In a market where small and medium enterprises (SMEs) represent the majority of economic activity but remain structurally underserved, fintech startup Flend made a straightforward bet - if access to finance and capital can move at the speed of business, growth will follow rapidly.

Flend began in mid-2022, when four founders from very different corners of Egypt’s financial and tech sectors came together with a shared goal in mind. Nehal Helmy, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, remembers the moment clearly.

“We started Flend with the idea that we want to do something for SMEs,” she told StartupScene. “They have a lot of challenges when it comes to financing.”

Joining her were CEO Ahmed Zaki, COO Saif Bendari, and CTO Mohammed ElBeltagy. Together, they brought experience across venture capital, banking, technology, and development finance. That combination, they realised, was exactly what was needed to tackle a problem that had long held back a majority of Egypt’s SMEs.

The problem they set out to solve is vast. According to Egypt's Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), SMEs/MSMEs account for an estimated 90% of the private sector, 43% of the GDP and 75% of the workforce. Despite this, accessing financing is slow, rigid, and often hard to come by.