Where preparation meets opportunity: How TPay Mobile put Egypt on the Fintech map

Making It

Sahar Salama, Founder and CEO of TPay Mobile

In a country with low banking penetration and high mobile adoption, Sahar Salama saw a business opportunity in creating a payment solution through telecom operators. She used her experience at Link Development to create a direct operator billing model and launched TPay Mobile in 2014. 

Launched in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE simultaneously, they now operate in over 18 markets across MENA covering almost 51 mn transactions a day. 

The company made headlines in 2017 by making the first wholesale acquisition of a fintech company in Egypt when they acquired their primary competitors DCBEgypt. In 2018, they became the region’s first Dragon, when A15 sold its 76% stake to Helios Investment. Salama talks to our host, Patrick, about conception, the challenges of scaling, the importance of finding the right partners, and her future plans to make TPay what she considers a great business.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

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** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press. 

You can check out TPay at: tpaymobile.com

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