SETTLE, an Egypt-based B2B payment startup, has secured $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Shorooq Partners. Other notable investors that participated included El Sewedy Capital Holding, Acasia Ventures, and Plus VC.
With this new funding, SETTLE plans to accelerate its transition into the global market and further develop its platform with a focus on enabling CFOs and business owners to make confident decisions based on real-time financial data.
SETTLE, currently in its pre-launch phase, has already processed over E£50 million (Egyptian pounds/EGP) in transactions during testing across such sectors as construction, energy, and contracting. Founded in 2023 by Mostafa Mobarak and Kamil Sayour, SETTLE aims to modernise financial operations for businesses by simplifying payment processes and collecting real-time cash flow data and insights.
To help organisations move B2B payments fully into the digital era, SETTLE has integrated with the top Egyptian banks through the Automated Clearing House (ACH). SETTLE’s platform connects ERP software such as Oracle and SAP to businesses’ existing bank accounts, automating payments, receivables, and treasury management. The integration provides companies with greater control and visibility of financial processes, reduces operational errors by up to 90 per cent, and enhances efficiency by reducing the workload required for these critical processes by as much as 70 per cent.
Kamil Sayour, co-founder of SETTLE, said, “We have watched the Egyptian market undergo a significant digital transformation in B2C services. I believe SETTLE has a major opportunity to bring the same transformation to B2B financial operations.”
Tamer Azer, partner at Shorooq Partners, stated, “The digitisation of financial operations for Egyptian businesses is long overdue, and SETTLE is stepping in with a service that is efficient, scalable, and easy to integrate.”Traditionally, B2B markets have been slower to pivot towards digitisation of essential processes than the B2C market. As of 2022, 80 per cent of businesses were still performing B2B payments via paper checks at least some of the time.
“The same year, 88 per cent of UAE residents had begun to use digital payments for B2C purchases. Since then, the ongoing disparity has placed many B2B vendors at a disadvantage in an increasingly digitised marketplace. Businesses in the Egyptian sector often wait up to two days to get an accurate picture of their cash flow from traditional banks.”
