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Khalid Ashmawi For the first time while studying in Europe, he thinks with money for the first time.
He just received his monthly scholarship as a master’s student at Stuttgart and wanted to send some parts of his family to Cairo. It was usually a slow and expensive process, he remembered. For example, a 400 dollar cable can spend 40 dollars on transfer fees and take three business days to arrive.
A few years later, even after working in Microsoft and Uber in the United States and the establishment of a startup, that experience did not improve much.
The endless pain point of his career was finally inspired to inaugurate Ashmawi MunifyEgyptians are an inter -border designed to give money to the Egyptian money and to provide access to US banking for residents of the country.
Early this year, joined the startup Wi -combinator summer 2025 batchOne of the few people in a class impressed by AI Startups from outside the United States and generator AI is one of the few. The company collected $ 3 million for seed funding from Accelerator and other regional investors with BYLD and DCG.
In an interview, the founder and CEO told TechCrunch, “Banking has not been built for people like me. It is very expensive, takes a long time and fragmented.” “This is a problem that I have personally experienced and a lot of people who are resonated with people who want to send back home quickly and efficiently.”
Ashmawi grew up in Egypt, studied computer science and made deep love for the software in the beginning. A scholarship took him to Europe, where he completed two master degrees in Germany and Switzerland.
From there, he spent seven years as a Microsoft and Uber engineer and team leader – an experience that opened his eyes to the world of disrupted technology and startups.
His next step was inevitable. In 2019, Ashmau left Uber Launch Founder Fund – Backed HoppiA propatech platform focused on the Middle East mortgages, acting as its chief technology officer until 2022.
The hoopi left the place to reflect his own immigrant journey. Once again, the issue of remittance grew. Meanwhile, in other emerging markets, platforms like Nigeria Lamopy And in India Aspora Already start the journey, those countries help to send immigrants back to the country.
Egypt is one of the largest remittance markets in the world, Receiving flow of about $ 30 billion annuallyThe
Bank wire and traditional taid remittance platforms, such as Western Union and Moneygram, remain as dominant alternatives, hope that the munal will be the first choice among the growing crops of digital banks that promise cheap and faster.
According to Ashmaou, Munifai serves Egyptians abroad – mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Gulf – who want to send money at a better rate and better rate.
Munifai also opens a US bank account and card using a local ID to take money to the Middle East business, remote workers and freelancers, as well as the opening of a US bank account and card as well as the way to hedge against local currency instability.
CEO told TechCrunch, “We are building our own railway and direct banking systems across different countries,” the CEO told TechCrunch that the platform was just launched two weeks ago, already looking at the initial acceptance with thousands of sign-ups.
“We really made this experience for the people of this region,” said Ashmawi.
In terms of business, Munifai has signed the agreement with medium -sized companies and initiatives, which represents an estimate of $ 50+ million in the monthly inter -bound volume according to Ashmow.
Startup, which provides dual customers and business models (providing remittances and banking services for individuals, sending APIs for business, sending and receiving inter -bound payments), gradually sewing regional banking railways together in other Middle East and adjoining countries over Egypt.
Its earning comes from the FX spread, interchange and the flow of payment.
Over the past few years, the Wi -Combinator batch has been in favor of AI and Developing Tools from the United States of America. So, how did Egyptian fintech enter? Ashmawi gives the problem of intense nature.
“If you are solving a big and urgent problem, this is important regardless of whether the current wave is AI or anything else.”
However, this support also has a precedent. The YC Histor has invested in startups to solve strict financial infrastructure problems from stripe to coins. Similarly, remittances are one of the most inclusive pain points in Finance worldwide and one of the continuous focus regions of the accelerator when supporting startups from emerging markets (case points: lemophi and aspora) before its recent AI Tilt.
In the meantime, Munifie represented the opportunity to support the founding of a personal connection with the track of the construction of one of the two US tech giants, Mena’s top prophetac companies.
