Banknbox and ASD Smart aim to bridge Sudan’s isolated banking apps by 2026

Bankbox looks at a shared infrastructure layer to fix Sudanese fintech fragmentation

Egyptian fintech Banknbox is moving to solve one of the Sudanese financial sector’s most persistent headaches: fragmentation. Under a new strategic agreement with local partner ASD Smart, Banknbox will launch an interoperable instant payment platform designed to link Sudan’s isolated set of banking apps and mobile wallets by the end of 2026, according to a statement (pdf) from the company.

For a country grappling with physical currency shortages and infrastructure instability, Banknbox had to think out of the box. To address Sudan’s electricity and telecommunications outages, the company has designed a distributed cloud architecture. This ensures that transactions are neither lost nor duplicated during disruptions, CEO Bassem Mahmoud tells EnterpriseAM.

Rather than competing with popular existing Sudanese apps like Bankak, the platform will serve as a “shared infrastructure layer” that enables interoperability between different e-wallets and banks for the first time on a broad market scale, Mahmoud tells us. He added that BanknBox will adopt a hybrid business model — combining licensing fees with transaction-based fees — ensuring sustainable revenue as digital transaction volumes grow nationwide.

Does the localized data center assembly push signal a new data residency sensitivity?

Schneider Electric, local systems integrator Zerotech, and the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) inked an agreement to locally assemble data center units at one of AOI’s factories, according to a Zerotech statement seen by EnterpriseAM. The project will “meet the growing needs of national projects” and “aims to enhance the Egyptian market’s readiness for expanding data center solutions and accelerating Egypt’s digital transformation,” Zerotech Chairman Atef Abu Hashem said.

Why this matters: This move could be in anticipation of a stricter regulatory environment for data residency as regulators become increasingly focused on where and how data is stored. Using infrastructure that is locally assembled in a facility with ties to the nation’s security apparatus provides an extra layer of sovereignty for sensitive sectors like defense, telecommunications, and finance.

Mubadala and SBI back Breadfast plan to explore African logistics expansion

Breadfast raised USD 50 mn in a pre-Series C funding round supported by Emirati sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, Japan’s SBI, and Saudi’s Olayan Financing Company, alongside unspecified VC investors, institutional investors, and an unnamed Saudi family, according to a statement. The online grocery company will use the funds to “expand infrastructure, strengthen logistics, and explore entry into new African markets.”

Why it matters: For most local startups, expansion ambitions seem to start and end in the Gulf. Yet Breadfast, along with a few notable exceptions, is also looking south and west into Africa. The company could be wagering that the full-stack approach it honed in Cairo may be a better fit for other markets on the continent than the already oversaturated Gulf market.

What’s next? The Cairo-born startup is looking to launch a larger Series C round in the first half of the year.

Valu rolls out high-ticket instant financing starting at EGP 1 mn

Valu launched an instant financing service for high-ticket transactions starting from EGP 1 mn, allowing users to apply through its app using only the national ID, the fintech giant said in a statement (pdf). Through the new service, Valu aims to broaden access to credit to include self-employed and underserved segments whose income structures or business models do not align with the standard documentation requirements typically imposed by traditional banks.

Leveraging big data: Valu has succeeded in integrating income assessment criteria, proactive risk evaluation, down payment determination, and risk-based pricing into a single operating workflow, enabling instant approvals that previously required lengthy due diligence processes and on-site inspections that could take days or weeks, Mostafa El Sahn, Valu’s chief risk officer, said during a press conference attended by EnterpriseAM. Valu conducts an independent valuation of the underlying asset and links the loan amount to the estimated market value rather than the merchant-set price. Facilities are issued as fixed, non-revolving installment plans with defined tenors and clear monthly obligations, he added.

The bigger picture: The move comes as part of Valu’s strategy to expand beyond its revolving credit model into non-revolving facilities for high-ticket transactions — a direction CEO Walid Hassouna flagged to us last year. The shift is designed both as a risk-hedging measure, particularly after lower-income segments came under pressure during 2023-2024, and as a way to introduce differentiated products that are harder to replicate amid intensifying competition in the consumer finance market.