Khalid Ashmawy remembers the primary time he wired cash dwelling whereas finding out in Europe.
He had simply obtained his month-to-month stipend as a grasp’s pupil in Stuttgart and wished to ship a part of it again to his household in Cairo. It was often a gradual and costly course of, he recalled. A $400 wire switch, for example, may value $40 in charges and take three enterprise days to reach.
Years later, whereas working at Microsoft and Uber within the U.S., and even after founding a startup, that have hadn’t improved a lot.
The persistent ache level throughout totally different phases of his profession finally impressed Ashmawy to launch Munify, a cross-border neobank designed to present Egyptians overseas a sooner, cheaper strategy to ship cash dwelling and, for residents within the nation, entry to U.S. banking.
Earlier this yr, the startup joined Y Combinator’s Summer season 2025 batch, a uncommon entrant from outdoors the U.S. and one of many few with out a core AI pitch in a category dominated by generative AI startups. The corporate additionally raised $3 million in seed funding from the accelerator and different regional buyers, together with BYLD and DCG.
“Banking wasn’t constructed for folks like me. It’s very expensive, takes a very long time, and is fragmented,” the founder and chief government informed TechCrunch in an interview. “It’s an issue I’ve personally skilled and one which resonates with lots of people who need to ship a refund dwelling shortly and effectively.”
Ashmawy grew up in Egypt, studied pc science, and developed a deep love for software program early on. A scholarship took him to Europe, the place he accomplished two grasp’s levels in Germany and Switzerland.
From there, he spent seven years as an engineer and staff chief at Microsoft and Uber — experiences that opened his eyes to the world of disruptive applied sciences and startups.
His subsequent step was inevitable. In 2019, Ashmawy left Uber to launch Founders Fund–backed Huspy, a proptech platform centered on mortgages within the Center East, serving as its chief know-how officer till 2022.
Leaving Huspy gave him area to replicate on his personal immigrant journey. As soon as once more, the difficulty of remittances loomed massive. In the meantime, in different rising markets, platforms like Nigeria’s LemFi and India’s Aspora have been already taking off, serving to migrants from these nations ship a refund dwelling.
Egypt is likely one of the world’s largest remittance markets, receiving practically $30 billion in inflows yearly.
Whereas financial institution wires and conventional remittance platforms equivalent to Western Union and MoneyGram stay the dominant choices, Munify hopes to be the primary selection in a rising crop of digital banks that promise cheaper and sooner transfers.
In accordance with Ashmawy, Munify serves Egyptians overseas — primarily within the U.S., U.Okay., Europe, and the Gulf — who need to ship cash dwelling immediately and at higher charges.
Munify additionally supplies companies, distant staff, and freelancers within the Center East a strategy to open a U.S. checking account and card utilizing solely an area ID to obtain and spend cash, in addition to hedge in opposition to native foreign money volatility.
“The principle motive why we’re totally different is that we’re constructing our personal rails and instantly connecting the banking techniques throughout totally different nations,” the CEO informed TechCrunch, including that the platform, which simply launched two weeks in the past, is already seeing early adoption by way of phrase of mouth with 1000’s of sign-ups.
“We’ve actually tailor-made this expertise for folks from the area,” stated Ashmawy.
On the enterprise aspect, Munify has signed contracts with mid-sized firms and enterprises, representing a projected $50+ million in month-to-month cross-border quantity, based on Ashmawy.
The startup, which operates on a twin shopper and enterprise mannequin (providing remittance and banking providers for people, whereas offering APIs for companies to ship and obtain cross-border funds), plans to increase past Egypt to different Center Japanese and adjoining nations, steadily stitching collectively regional banking rails.
Its income comes from FX spreads, interchange, and cost flows.
Y Combinator’s batches over the previous couple of years have favored AI and developer instruments from america. So, how did the Egyptian fintech get in? Ashmawy credit the acute nature of the issue.
“If you happen to’re fixing an enormous and pressing downside, that’s what actually issues, no matter whether or not the present wave is AI or one thing else,” he stated.
However there’s precedent for this backing as effectively. YC has traditionally invested in startups fixing laborious monetary infrastructure issues, from Stripe to Coinbase. Equally, remittances are one of the crucial entrenched ache factors in international finance and one of many accelerator’s constant focus areas when backing startups from rising markets (living proof: LemFi and Aspora) earlier than its current AI tilt.
Within the midst of that, Munify represented an opportunity to again a founder with expertise at two U.S. tech giants, a observe document of constructing considered one of MENA’s prime proptech firms, and a private connection to the issue.
