UAE’s Fintech Galaxy acquires Egypt’s Underlie

UAE’s Fintech Galaxy acquires Egypt’s Underlie

The deal will help to speed up FTG’s open finance and open banking platform’s market penetration in Egypt, develop and launch new digital solutions, and push financial inclusion forward.

M&A activity across the emerging venture markets has been at an all-time high this year. The MENA region has surpassed the number of exits it recorded over the past year. While economic conditions had a major part to play in inculcating new exit strategies for start-ups, it did result in some very interesting cross-market acquisitions within the MENA region.

We have seen KSA’s Floward acquire Kuwait’s Mubkhar, and earlier this year, KSA’s e-commerce start-up Sary acquired Egypt-based B2B platform Mowarrid as part of its plan to expand across MENAP.

In terms of fintech-based acquisitions, real estate platform Huspy acquired Finance Lab, a lending advisory firm, and Just Mortgages — an independent financial consultant. Meanwhile, super app Careem also acquired Denarii Cash to connect customers and drivers with remittance services using the platform’s money transfer technology.

According to the companies, Underlie’s customer-centric approach and ambition to understand FIs’ needs and pain points to provide them with new proposed revenue streams and tailored products and services complements Fintech Galaxy’s vision, existing distribution channels, technology, data practices, and