The Missing Middle: Why Egypt’s Capital Markets Still Struggle to Fund Its Unicorns

Egypt’s fintech sector has attracted substantial private capital but remains short of a consistent route from venture funding to primary public-market financing. MNT‑Halan raised $157.5mn in July 2024 from international investors, including a $40mn investment from the International Finance Corporation, while Thndr has raised almost $38mn and by early 2026 had become the Egyptian Exchange’s largest brokerage by market share. Yet neither company built its expansion story through fresh primary capital raised on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), highlighting a persistent “missing middle” between venture rounds and IPOs.

"The capital exists. The bridge remains incomplete," industry observers say — a concise diagnosis of why private financing frequently outpaces the public market as a growth option for tech firms.

The gap has technical and economic dimensions. Venture-backed companies typically prioritise customer acquisition, technology and rapid geographic expansion over near-term earnings, and private investors will value those dynamics against expected growth and future cash flows. By contrast, EGX listing rules require a financial track record, free-float and governance standards that impose continuous disclosure and day-to-day valuation on companies. "That creates a more fundamental question than whether a technology company can list: why should it?" the analysis notes, pointing to the deterrent effect of market scrutiny and observable valuations for rapidly expanding startups.

• MNT‑Halan: $157.5mn raised in July 2024; investors included IFC, Development Partners International, Lorax Capital Partners, Apis Partners-managed funds, Lunate and GB Corp. The company has since expanded into Türkiye, Pakistan and the UAE.
• Thndr: Raised almost $38mn; by early 2026 it had surpassed 5.5mn downloads, about 700,000 funded accounts and captured 12.9% of EGX trading volume, making it the exchange’s largest broker by market share.
• Fawry: Floated in 2019 and later became Egypt’s first technology company to reach a billion-dollar market value, proving a tech-led financial services IPO could succeed on EGX.
• Valu: Began trading on EGX in June 2025 after EFG Holding distributed 20.488% of Valu’s share capital as an in‑kind dividend; Amazon took a 3.95% direct stake. However, Valu’s listing did not raise primary capital — it provided liquidity and price discovery but not fresh growth funding.

The experience of Fawry and Valu illustrates both potential and limits. Fawry demonstrated that a fintech could list and attract sustained investor interest; Valu showed the exchange can host modern fintechs and deliver public ownership. But Valu’s route — a distribution from a parent rather than a primary IPO — underscored that EGX has not yet become the routine channel for growth capital that venture capital or private equity provide.

Regulators have sought to narrow the gap. The Financial Regulatory Authority has implemented changes aiming to improve access for newly established and growth companies while maintaining investor protections. Policymakers face a balancing act: "The policy challenge is consequently not to make listing easy at any cost. It is to make public capital sufficiently attractive without weakening the standards on which market credibility depends," the reporting states.

Outlook: For Egypt to convert its private‑capital successes into repeatable public-market financings, the exchange must compete with private funding on more than rules — it must offer a credible combination of growth capital, liquidity and valuation upside that founders and investors find superior to further private rounds. Until that bridge is completed, the country’s most dynamic fintechs are likely to keep relying on international venture and private-equity cheques to scale regionally and beyond.