The investment sum is expected to support Wasla’s product rollout and regional expansion as well as enable e-commerce, payments, and credit for large audiences in emerging markets – including Egypt – said Contact.

Contact – formerly known as Sarwa Capital – is an Egyptian consumer finance company that has been operating in the local market since 2001, and it was the first financial services platform to avail advanced credit scoring and collection mechanisms in Egypt.

As an end-to-end online shopping provider, Wasla is the first emerging market mobile web browser and desktop extension that provides solutions for online payments with a network of over 100 local and regional e-commerce merchants.

Wasla currently has 1.5 million app downloads with 8.5x (Y-o-Y) growth in total e-commerce traffic, and it recently secured a partnership to expand its services across Africa.

This week, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ratified the Fintech law, which governs robo-advisory, nano-finance, insurtech, and (tech-enabled) consumer finance, among other sub sectors.

Under the new law, the Financial Regulatory Authority is now the only body that is responsible for licensing and regulating fintech companies in the local market.