Egyptian Fintech Sympl Raises $6M for Expansion of BNPL Services

Egypt-based Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) fintech platform, Sympl, has received $6 million in seed funding, after having just been created five months ago in August 2021. The seed round was led by Beco Capital, with participation from A15 and Global Ventures.

With the heightened popularity of BNPL - particularly after 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic has made such services much more attractive - Sympl looks to fulfil a niche for consumers in Egypt with its own take on the BNPL model. Namely, Sympl targets over 50 million debit and credit cardholders in Egypt with their 'Save Now Pay Later' model, allowing merchants to sell directly to consumers on short-term, zero-interest payment plans.

While typical BNPL models split a purchase into multiple equal payments with an initial payment made at checkout, Sympl customers pay an upfront fixed fee of 100 Egyptian pounds which covers future repayments. The fee is the same regardless of the purchase amount, and is given after Sympl is able to acknowledge and check the funds in the customer's bank account. The rest of the payments can be done over three to five installments.

Sympl plans to use this latest investment to expand its merchant network, up from its current network of up to 240 merchants offering electronics, travel, jewellery, furniture, education and healthcare products. They also hope to hire more talent, and spread its services further into Egypt, expanding from two governorates to all 27 governorates across the country.