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Sunday, 22 January 2023

Ex-Beltone execs launch SME finance outfit Invia

Former Beltone Financial executives are launching new fintech startup Invia, which will provide financial services to informal small businesses that have limited access to financing, the National reports.

Behind the company: Yehia Ashour (LinkedIn), former CEO and co-founder of Beltone’s SME unit; Ahmed Zeinhom (LinkedIn), Beltone SME’s former chief investment officer; and Omar Aboulmagd (LinkedIn), Beltone SME’s former investment director.

What they said: “We want to localize the value chain and develop the companies that will make this country less dependent on imports,” Ashour told the newspaper. “With the economic conditions in Egypt, specifically, the solution we need is to make the small businesses bigger, and especially the small manufacturing businesses.”

Funding on the way: Invia is currently raising a pre-seed round which the National says will be announced in the coming months.

REMEMBER- Beltone is adjusting to new ownership. Employees at Beltone SME reportedly resigned en masse late last year, while top execs departed other branches of Beltone Financial. The company is now recruiting talent at multiple levels after Abu Dhabi-based Chimera brought in a new CEO and chairman at Beltone Financial and appointed two new non-executive board members. Chimera acquired a 56% stake in the company in October, replacing Orascom Financial Holding as Beltone Financial’s controlling shareholder.

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