Former Microsoft and Uber Engineer Secures 3 Million Dollars for Egyptian Diaspora Neobank Munify

Sending money overseas often costs too much and takes far too long. Khalid Ashmawy wants to solve this exact problem for the Egyptian diaspora. Ashmawy spent nearly a decade working as an engineer and engineering manager at Microsoft and Uber. He also helped start the property technology company Huspy. Now, he is focusing his attention on international money transfers with his new startup called Munify.

The company recently secured three million dollars in seed funding. The famous Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator led the round, with participation from regional investment firms BYLD and DCG. Munify aims to serve Egyptians living abroad, especially those residing in the United States, Europe, and the Gulf region.

Building Better Financial Rails

Egypt represents one of the largest remittance markets globally. People send roughly 30 billion dollars back to the country every year. Despite this massive volume of cash, the underlying systems remain slow and expensive. Ashmawy experienced this firsthand while studying in Europe. He often paid high fees just to send a few hundred dollars home, and the money would sometimes take days to arrive.

Instead of relying on older networks, Munify is building its own connections directly between international banking systems. This direct approach allows users to transfer funds instantly and at a lower price compared to established services like Western Union. The platform also gives people residing in the Middle East access to United States banking features. Users can open dollar accounts and receive virtual cards using only their local identification documents.

You can read more about how startups are changing global finance by checking out recent coverage on the consumer technology startup space.

Serving Both Consumers and Businesses

The startup does not limit its services strictly to individuals. Munify also operates a business to business side. They offer application programming interfaces that allow companies and freelancers to send and receive international payments easily. The team has already signed contracts with several mid-sized enterprises. These early agreements represent over 50 million dollars in projected monthly transaction volume.

Since launching its consumer application just a few weeks ago, the company has seen thousands of sign-ups spreading mostly through word of mouth. The startup generates its income by taking a small percentage on currency exchanges and through standard payment processing fees.

With this fresh injection of capital, the team plans to expand their engineering staff and acquire more users. While they are currently focusing heavily on the Egypt to United States corridor, the long term vision involves expanding these instant payment services across the entire Middle East.