Enza, from two ex-Network International execs, raised a $6M seed for African bank payments

Payments infrastructure for banks and fintechs on the issuing side and SMEs and merchants on the acceptance side, charged per transaction

African banks, having ceded SME payments to fintechs, will buy infrastructure from a startup to win merchants back and keep visibility over aggregators

$6M seed led by Algebra Ventures and Quona Capital after the founders self-funded the early years

Hany Fekry, a former managing director at Network International (and earlier chief commercial officer at Emerging Markets Payments), and ex-Network executive Hamish Houston managed global acceptance, processing and consumer finance there. When neither side could agree on how to serve banks and fintechs in Africa, they resigned and started Enza in 2022; it launched in January 2023.

Enza bootstrapped, then raised its seed without shopping the deal widely. By March 2025 it had live bank partnerships in Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda and South Africa, over 10 million monthly contracted transactions growing 35% to 40% month-over-month, and a target of 30 to 40 high-quality bank relationships rather than the nearly 200 banks its team had worked with.

Banks ceded SME merchant market share to fintech aggregators, and wanted tools to take it back

Banks lacked visibility into their aggregator partners, creating compliance exposure

The founders' relationships across about 200 banks let them sign contracts quickly

The founders chose quality over scale: after serving nearly 200 banks at Network, they aim for 30 to 40 relationships and charge per transaction.

As of March 2025 Enza was live with banks in six African markets, using seed money to hire and add products, and targeting 30 to 40 bank relationships.