Munify, a cross-border neobank, has successfully raised $3 million in seed funding. This investment round was led by the prestigious Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, as part of Munify’s inclusion in its Summer 2025 batch. Other notable investors who participated in the round include regional firms BYLD and DCG.
The primary purpose of this investment is to empower Munify to build and scale its proprietary financial infrastructure. The funds are intended to fuel the company’s mission of creating new, efficient financial “rails” that directly connect the banking systems of different countries. This will begin with a focus on the U.S.-Egypt corridor before expanding to other markets in the Middle East and adjacent regions. The capital will be crucial for product development, user acquisition, and operational scaling to support its ambitious growth targets.
Why The Investors Invested
Investors backed Munify with a significant seed round for several compelling, fact-based reasons that point to a high-growth venture.
A primary driver for the investment is the massive and underserved market Munify is targeting. Egypt is one of the world’s largest remittance markets, with annual inflows approaching $30 billion. The existing solutions for sending money are notoriously slow, expensive, and fragmented, creating a significant and urgent pain point for millions. Investors recognized this as a multi-billion dollar opportunity ripe for disruption by a technologically superior and user-centric platform.
The caliber of the founder, Khalid Ashmawy, provided a strong vote of confidence. Investors are often backing the team as much as the idea, and Ashmawy’s background is exceptional. His technical expertise was honed during seven years in engineering and leadership roles at global tech giants Microsoft and Uber. Critically, he also possesses proven entrepreneurial experience as the co-founder and CTO of Huspy, a successful proptech company in the Middle East backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. This unique combination of big-tech experience and regional startup success, along with his deep personal connection to the problem, signals a founder with the vision and capability to execute.
Munify also presented a differentiated product with undeniable early traction. The startup isn’t simply another app built on existing payment systems; its strategy is to build its own financial rails for direct bank-to-bank connections, promising superior speed and cost savings. This technical advantage was validated by immediate market adoption. Shortly after its launch, Munify attracted thousands of users through word-of-mouth. More impressively, it secured B2B contracts projected to handle over $50 million in monthly cross-border volume, providing investors with tangible proof of product-market fit and a clear path to significant revenue.
A Look At Munify
Munify was founded in 2023 by Khalid Ashmawy, who grew up in Cairo before moving abroad for his studies. He holds computer science degrees and two master’s qualifications earned in Germany and Switzerland. His professional journey includes nearly a decade at Microsoft and Uber in the U.S., followed by co-founding Huspy in 2019. Ashmawy remained CTO until 2022 before launching Munify, inspired by his own struggles with remittances during his time abroad.
The startup is headquartered with an international outlook, serving Egyptian expatriates across the U.S., Europe, and the Gulf, while also targeting business clients and freelancers in the broader Middle East. Munify’s ambition is to gradually stitch together banking rails across emerging markets, positioning itself as a regional neobank for cross-border finance.
Beyond product innovation, Munify differentiates itself by its direct banking integrations, which reduce transaction costs and speed up transfers compared with legacy providers. Its model extends beyond personal remittances, enabling enterprises and startups to move capital internationally, opening up larger B2B revenue opportunities.
While still early in its journey, Munify has already secured institutional validation through Y Combinator and attracted thousands of early adopters. Its dual focus on consumers and businesses, underpinned by a vast remittance corridor, places it at the intersection of two high-growth fintech trends: digital remittances and embedded financial infrastructure.