Khalid Ashmawy remembers the primary time he wired cash dwelling whereas finding out in Europe.
He had simply acquired his month-to-month stipend as a grasp’s scholar in Stuttgart and wished to ship a part of it again to his household in Cairo. It was often a gradual and costly course of, he recalled. A $400 wire switch, as an example, may value $40 in charges and take three enterprise days to reach.
Years later, whereas working at Microsoft and Uber within the U.S., and even after founding a startup, that have hadn’t improved a lot.
The persistent ache level throughout totally different phases of his profession ultimately impressed Ashmawy to launch Munify, a cross-border neobank designed to provide Egyptians overseas a sooner, cheaper strategy to ship cash dwelling and, for residents within the nation, entry to U.S. banking.
Earlier this yr, the startup joined Y Combinator’s Summer time 2025 batch, a uncommon entrant from outdoors the U.S. and one of many few with no core AI pitch in a category dominated by generative AI startups. The corporate additionally raised $3 million in seed funding from the accelerator and different regional traders, together with BYLD and DCG.
“Banking wasn’t constructed for folks like me. It’s very pricey, takes a very long time, and is fragmented,” the founder and chief govt instructed TechCrunch in an interview. “It’s an issue I’ve personally skilled and one which resonates with lots of people who need to ship a reimbursement dwelling rapidly and effectively.”
Ashmawy grew up in Egypt, studied laptop science, and developed a deep love for software program early on. A scholarship took him to Europe, the place he accomplished two grasp’s levels in Germany and Switzerland.
From there, he spent seven years as an engineer and staff chief at Microsoft and Uber — experiences that opened his eyes to the world of disruptive applied sciences and startups.
His subsequent step was inevitable. In 2019, Ashmawy left Uber to launch Founders Fund-backed Huspy, a proptech platform targeted on mortgages within the Center East, serving as its chief expertise officer till 2022.
Leaving Huspy gave him area to replicate on his personal immigrant journey. As soon as once more, the difficulty of remittances loomed massive. In the meantime, in different rising markets, platforms like Nigeria’s LemFi and India’s Aspora had been already taking off, serving to migrants from these nations ship a reimbursement dwelling.
Egypt is likely one of the world’s largest remittance markets, receiving almost $30 billion in inflows yearly.
Whereas financial institution wires and conventional remittance platforms similar to Western Union and MoneyGram stay the dominant choices, Munify hopes to be the primary alternative in a rising crop of digital banks that promise cheaper and sooner transfers.
Based on Ashmawy, Munify serves Egyptians overseas — primarily within the U.S., U.Ok., Europe, and the Gulf — who need to ship cash dwelling immediately and at higher charges.
Munify additionally gives companies, distant employees, and freelancers within the Center East a strategy to open a U.S. checking account and card utilizing solely an area ID to obtain and spend cash, in addition to hedge towards native forex volatility.
“The principle motive why we’re totally different is that we’re constructing our personal rails and immediately connecting the banking methods throughout totally different nations,” the CEO instructed TechCrunch, including that the platform, which simply launched two weeks in the past, is already seeing early adoption via phrase of mouth with 1000’s of sign-ups.
“We’ve actually tailor-made this expertise for folks from the area,” mentioned Ashmawy.
On the enterprise aspect, Munify has signed contracts with mid-sized corporations and enterprises, representing a projected $50+ million in month-to-month cross-border quantity, in response to Ashmawy.
The startup, which operates on a twin client and enterprise mannequin (providing remittance and banking providers for people, whereas offering APIs for companies to ship and obtain cross-border funds), plans to develop past Egypt to different Center Japanese and adjoining nations, step by step stitching collectively regional banking rails.
Its income comes from FX spreads, interchange, and cost flows.
Y Combinator’s batches over the previous couple of years have favored AI and developer instruments from the US. So, how did the Egyptian fintech get in? Ashmawy credit the acute nature of the issue.
“For those who’re fixing a giant and pressing downside, that’s what actually issues, no matter whether or not the present wave is AI or one thing else,” he mentioned.
However there’s precedent for this backing as nicely. YC has traditionally invested in startups fixing onerous monetary infrastructure issues, from Stripe to Coinbase. Equally, remittances are one of the vital entrenched ache factors in world finance and one of many accelerator’s constant focus areas when backing startups from rising markets (living proof: LemFi and Aspora) earlier than its current AI tilt.
Within the midst of that, Munify represented an opportunity to again a founder with expertise at two U.S. tech giants, a monitor report of constructing one in all MENA’s high proptech corporations, and a private connection to the issue.
