How Balad connects global remittances to home

Egypt’s remittance boom is creating a much bigger window for the companies building the infrastructure behind it. With inflows at record highs and more money moving through formal channels, Fintech infrastructure company Balad is looking to scale the rails connecting international remittance providers with recipients here at home, while CEO and co-founder Adham Azzam sees room for the market to evolve well beyond simply sending money home.

And Balad now has a heavyweight financial services player behind it: Following EFG Finance’s recent acquisition of a controlling stake in the company, EnterpriseAM sat down with Azzam to discuss how Balad fits into Egypt’s remittance infrastructure, where it plans to expand next, and how the country could build a deeper financial relationship with mns of Egyptians living abroad.

What Balad does: The Cairo-based fintech provides the infrastructure connecting international remittance companies with Egypt’s payment system, allowing regulated fintechs, exchange houses, and financial institutions abroad to send money to local bank accounts and mobile wallets or make it available for direct pickup. Balad received the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) approval to operate as a remittance aggregator in 2025 under the sponsor-bank framework.

DATA POINT- Egypt received USD 43.1 bn in remittances during the first 11 months of FY 2025/26, from July 2025 to May 2026, while calendar-year inflows hit a record USD 41.5 bn in 2025. “It’s actually larger than many of our other income sources, like tourism, for example, or the Suez Canal or even our exports,” Azzam says, referring to merchandise exports.

Top of Africa: The country accounts for roughly a third of the USD 100-110 bn in remittances flowing into the continent annually, he notes. That becomes even more striking when set against the size of Egypt’s diaspora. “We have 10 to 15 mn, and they sent a record USD 41.5 bn home in 2025,” Azzam says.

Azzam puts that down partly to Egyptians’ ties to home. Many continue to view their time overseas through the lens of an eventual return, he argues. “An Egyptian who goes abroad, he has the view that he will come back. Even if he’s not coming back, he still has this in sight,” Azzam said.

Balad is trying to make moving those smaller amounts cheaper and easier. Traditional international banking infrastructure makes little economic sense for workers sending USD 100-300 home when fees can represent a significant share of the transfer. “We are an alternative to SWIFT for the small-ticket remittances to arrive in Egypt and be paid out to the beneficiaries, to the families,” Azzam said.

Balad sits between remittance companies abroad and Egypt’s financial system. Rather than operating another consumer-facing remittance app, it connects regulated financial institutions and fintechs overseas to local bank accounts, mobile wallets and money payout networks. Balad facilitates 24/7 real-time payouts into Egyptian bank accounts and mobile wallets, as well as money payouts, with Banque du Caire, Fawry, and Aman among its current payout partners.

Why it matters: Balad is trying to simplify the pipes connecting global remittance providers with Egypt. Under the previous regulatory model, overseas providers generally needed to secure approval through a local sponsor bank — a process Azzam says could take months or even years. Balad’s aggregator model gives international providers a route to connect through its infrastructure, subject to the necessary reviews and approvals.

The company is now scaling that model. Balad has signed more than 20 international partners and is applying for a direct Payment Service Provider (PSP) license under the CBE’s new licensing regime. Around 75% of Egypt’s incoming remittances originate in the GCC, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE among the largest source markets, while other major markets include the US, Italy, France, and Canada.

EFG Finance gives Balad a larger financial services ecosystem to build alongside. The company recently acquired a controlling stake in Balad, while Azzam and several existing investors remain shareholders, including First Circle Capital, Acasia Ventures and Sunny Side Venture Partners.

But Azzam sees much bigger room for Egypt’s remittance market over the longer term. Today, the financial journey typically ends when an Egyptian abroad sends money home and their family spends it. He believes the market can eventually give Egyptians abroad more ways to retain control over part of those funds and direct them toward savings and investments.

India offers a glimpse of how much further that relationship could go. Azzam points to the country as an example of a diaspora whose financial relationship with home extends beyond remittances into deposits and investments. Egypt has yet to develop a comparable relationship, leaving room to bring more diaspora savings into the domestic financial system.

That could mean building a ladder from remittances into investment. Azzam sees the potential to move from conventional transfers into emergency savings, savings accounts, EGP- and USD-denominated T-bills, precious metals funds, EGX investments, ins. and ultimately retirement products. “You have to give him a possibility to do something also with USD 50 and with USD 100, with USD 1k,” he says. The government apparently shares Azzam’s vision — as we just saw in the previous story.

But Egypt still has to compete for that money. Egyptians abroad already have access to investment products where they live, meaning Egypt needs competitive products and, crucially, easier access to them. “All these require access. They need to be able to have plumbing available for them to be able to send that money not just for payout, but also for investment,” Azzam said.

What’s next: Balad is preparing to open another major remittance corridor. The new market sits outside its existing Gulf, European, and North American corridors and will be disclosed once the relevant approvals are secured and the corridor is live. “We are working on a major corridor for Egyptians that remains under-served by formal digital remittance infrastructure,” Azzam says.

More partnerships are coming: Balad is close to signing a framework agreement with a large mobile operator for co-marketing activities aimed at bringing more remittance flows into official channels.

For Azzam, growing the formal market is the bigger reward. “Everyone who’s working in this ecosystem is interested much more in growing the pie than competing against each other. If we just put everything in the official channels, we don’t need to compete with anyone. This is already big enough,” he says.