In the last ten years, Network International, based in Dubai, has emerged as a leading payment processor throughout the Middle East and Africa, aided by a couple of strategic acquisitions.

Nonetheless, established players often face challenges related to rapid innovation, creating opportunities for agile startups to take the lead. One such new development is Enza, a fintech start-up that was established in 2022 by Hany Fekry, a former managing director at Network, and Hamish Houston, another ex-executive from Network.

Having secured $6 million in seed financing, Enza is focused on developing infrastructure for banks and fintech companies, providing a spectrum of local payment solutions, including cards, wallets, and real-time payments.

Before the creation of Enza, the founders were responsible for the global acceptance, processing, and consumer finance sectors at Network International. While Network was enhancing its payments network across the Middle East and Africa with an emphasis on acceptance, they noticed a significant lack of comprehensive solutions tailored for banks and fintechs, particularly in Africa.

After failing to align with Network, the founders left to establish Enza, which officially commenced operations in January 2023.

“Our divergence pushed us to pause and reconsider how to meet these unmet market demands,” stated CEO Fekry in an interview with TechCrunch.

The team at Enza claims their business model is founded on insights gained during their tenure at Network International and its subsidiary, DPO Group. However, unlike these previous companies, which predominantly concentrated on card acceptance and merchant acquisition, Enza aims for a more extensive approach, catering to both transaction sides.

The platform developed by Enza is tailored for banks and fintechs on the issuing side, while also catering to SMEs and merchants on the acceptance side. The startup’s initial focus is on Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa—three of Africa’s largest financial markets.

For millions of underserved or unbanked small businesses throughout Africa, payment solutions often represent the initial step into formal finance. Enza aims to assist these businesses in accepting both in-person and online payments at minimal to no cost—an approach it believes will foster long-term partnerships between banks and fintechs.

Once established, Enza’s infrastructure facilitates the cross-selling of lending, savings, insurance, and various other financial services.

“Payments are the gateway,” remarked Andrew Key, who joined Enza as an executive director last year. “However, the real value lies in the data and additional services that can be layered on top.”

This approach also reflects the shifting relationship between banks and fintechs across Africa. For many years, banks have relinquished infrastructure and especially SME market share to companies such as Flutterwave, Fawry, Paymob, and Moniepoint, which has become Nigeria’s largest merchant acquirer. Nonetheless, banks maintain significant advantages, such as broader service offerings and regulatory support.

“Banks have acknowledged that they surrendered too much market to fintechs,” explained Houston. “We aim to equip them with the technology to reclaim that ground.”

Despite the growing influence of fintechs in Africa, banks continue to be the central and regulated entities behind most payment aggregators. However, many banks still lack clear visibility into the operations of their aggregator partners or downstream merchants.

As the founders assert, one of the key functionalities of Enza is to provide banks with enhanced transparency and control over their payment ecosystems, enabling them to remain compliant while expanding.

The Dubai-based startup is also increasing the diversity of payment options available to banks. Enza integrates with local card networks such as Verve, AfriGo, and Meeza, in addition to global giants like Visa and Mastercard.

Furthermore, Enza connects with real-time payment systems including Nigeria’s NIBSS, South Africa’s PayShap, and Egypt’s InstaPay, as well as mobile money services and telecom wallet solutions, accommodating features like QR codes, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options, and contactless payment functionalities.

Enza is capitalizing on the decades of experience and extensive networks of its founders to swiftly secure contracts with numerous banks. For example, Fekry had previously served as chief commercial officer at Emerging Markets Payments (EMP), a company acquired by Network International, where he later took on the role of managing director.

Over the span of their careers, the team has collaborated with nearly 200 banks. However, this time around, they are prioritizing quality over quantity. “We are not aiming to replicate that scale,” remarked Houston. “We are focusing on establishing 30 to 40 high-quality bank partnerships.”

Although the company only launched last year, the Dubai-based fintech has already achieved over 10 million monthly contracted transactions through active bank partnerships in six African countries: Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda, and South Africa.

Enza employs a per-transaction (“per-click”) pricing model for banks. These transaction volumes are growing at a rate of 35 to 40% per month and are projected to double over the next two years.

In its early days, the company was self-funded by its founders. When the decision was made to seek external investment, they chose to limit their outreach.

Instead, Algebra Ventures and Quona Capital led the $6 million seed funding round. “The leadership team at Enza possesses an impressive track record in establishing, growing, and selling fintech ventures across the continent,” said Tarek Assaad, managing partner at Algebra Ventures, explaining why his firm supported this two-year-old startup.

The newly acquired capital will be utilized for team expansion and the introduction of new products tailored for their banking partners across Africa.

“We founded Enza to tackle genuine infrastructure challenges throughout Africa,” Fekry stated. “We have dedicated our careers to ensuring our families and communities have access to financial products comparable to those available in Europe or the U.S., at affordable costs, whenever they are needed.”