enza closes US$6 million Seed+ round to expand across Africa

Overview

Updated Yesterday

Banks across Africa have run payments on switches built decades ago. enza sells them a single connection to cards, mobile wallets and instant payment rails, and on 6 November it closed a US$6 million Seed+ round to take that product into more markets.

4DX Ventures led the round. British International Investment, the UK's development finance institution, joined as a new investor, and Quona Capital and Algebra Ventures added to the positions they took in the 2025 seed round. The money pays for new licences and market entries, the two things that decide how many banks enza can serve.

Why it matters

If enza's bet is right, African banks get a cheaper way to offer wallets, cards and instant payments without ceding customers to fintechs.

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Key Indicators

$6M

Seed+ round size

Led by 4DX Ventures, with BII joining and two seed investors adding capital.

Countries served

enza says it has bank and fintech clients in 12 African countries.

35–40%

Monthly contracted volume growth

enza says contracted monthly transaction volumes are growing at that pace.

$12.8M

Total raised

Across two recorded rounds, according to Fireround.

10M

Monthly contracted transactions at seed

Live bank partnerships across six African markets at the 2025 seed round.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

People Involved

Hany Fekry

Co-founder and Group Chief Executive, enza

Leading enza's expansion after the Seed+ round

Hamish Houston

Co-founder, enza

Building enza's bank-facing payments platform

Daniel Marlo

Managing Partner, 4DX Ventures

Led enza's Seed+ round

Chirantan Patnaik

Head of Disruptive Ventures, British International Investment

New enza investor after BII due diligence

Organizations Involved

enza

Payments infrastructure company

Closed a US$6 million Seed+ round

enza is a Cairo-based payments infrastructure company that sells banks and fintechs a single integration to card schemes, mobile wallets and real-time payment rails.

4DX Ventures

Venture capital firm

Led enza's Seed+ round

4DX Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in African technology companies and led enza's Seed+ round.

British International Investment

Development finance institution

New investor in enza

British International Investment is the UK government's development finance institution and joined enza's cap table as a new investor in the Seed+ round.

Quona Capital

Venture capital firm

Existing investor; added to its position

Quona Capital is a venture firm focused on financial inclusion in emerging markets and co-led enza's 2025 seed round.

Algebra Ventures

Venture capital firm

Existing investor; added to its position

Algebra Ventures is an Egypt-focused venture capital firm and co-led enza's 2025 seed round.

Bank of Ghana

Central bank

Granted enza a Payment Service Provider Enhanced licence

The Bank of Ghana is the country's central bank and granted enza a Payment Service Provider Enhanced licence in 2026.

Timeline

2022 November 2026

5 events Latest: Yesterday

Tap a bar to jump to that date

November 2026
Seed+ round closes
Latest Funding

enza closes a US$6 million Seed+ round led by 4DX Ventures, with BII joining.
Yesterday
September 2026
Ghana launch celebrated
Company

enza marks its commercial launch in Ghana after the licence.
September 23rd, 2026
Ghana licence granted
Regulatory

enza wins a Payment Service Provider Enhanced licence from the Bank of Ghana.
September 2026
2025
Seed round closes
Funding

Quona Capital and Algebra Ventures co-lead a US$6.75 million seed round.
2025
2022
enza is founded
Company

Hany Fekry and Hamish Houston start enza to sell payments infrastructure to African banks.
2022

Scenarios

enza wins a new payments licence and launches in another African market

Likely Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: enza's stated plan for the round; payments analysts tracked by Dealroom

enza says the Seed+ money goes to new markets and the licences needed to serve banks there. A new central-bank approval, followed by a commercial launch, would be the clearest sign the strategy is working. Ghana is the template: licence first, launch second.

enza raises a Series A at a disclosed valuation

Possible Resolves by End of 2027

Discussed by: Dealroom and venture-market trackers

The Seed+ round was small and the valuation was not disclosed. A priced Series A would show investors are willing to fund enza's licence-by-licence expansion at a higher price. The trigger is usually a year of contracted volume growth and a few new bank clients.

A larger payments company buys enza

Unlikely Resolves by End of 2027

Discussed by: payments-industry analysts

enza sells infrastructure to banks, a segment larger processors and card networks want. The founders already sold one processor. An acquisition would end the independent-expansion story and fold enza's licences and bank connections into a bigger network.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

2007

M-Pesa launches in Kenya (2007)

Safaricom and Vodafone launched M-Pesa as a text-message money transfer service. It grew into a national payments network used by millions of people who had little access to bank branches, and it did so without the card infrastructure that dominated richer markets.

Then

Banks and telecoms raced to copy the model across East Africa.

Now

Mobile money became the default way many Africans store and move cash, and it set a template for building payments rails around local behaviour rather than legacy cards.

Why this matters now

enza is making a related bet: that banks, not telecoms, can run the modern rails their customers use.

2016

India launches the Unified Payments Interface (2016)

India's National Payments Corporation launched the Unified Payments Interface, a shared real-time payment system that banks and third-party apps could connect to. Transaction volumes grew into the billions.

Then

Consumers got free instant transfers, and fintechs built services on top of the rails.

Now

UPI showed that public real-time rails can pull banks into modern payments without each bank building its own network.

Why this matters now

enza connects to domestic real-time systems such as Nigeria's NIBSS, South Africa's PayShap and Egypt's InstaPay, the same layer UPI occupies in India.

1990s–2000s

Network International builds an African payments processor (1990s–2000s)

Network International built a payments processing business serving banks across Africa and the Middle East. enza's founders worked there and helped build a processor that reached banks in more than 40 African markets before that business was acquired.

Then

The founders moved into processing and regional operations after the sale.

Now

The exit gave the team relationships with banks, card schemes and regulators across the continent.

Why this matters now

4DX cites that record as the reason it trusts enza to sell to conservative bank buyers.