Tanmeyah builds in-house credit scoring to speed up micro and small business lending

EFG Finance’s Tanmeyah is rolling out its own credit scoring model powered by iScore’s Decision-as-a-Service, which runs on Synapse Analytics’ Konan engine, according to a company statement (pdf). The model uses iScore’s bureau data to size up micro and small business borrowers, providing faster approvals and less manual work.

Why it matters: Traditional credit scoring relies on payslips and bureau records that most micro and small enterprises don’t have. Tanmeyah built its own model to automate assessment for that segment, replacing manual underwriting that limited volume. Synapse Analytics says its Konan engine has supported over USD 200 mn in lending and cut non-performing loans by up to 40%, suggesting AI-driven scoring can unlock MSME lending at scale without blowing up risk.

IN CONTEXT- Raya Holdings spun up Raya Nexus last month, an AI shop with EGP 250 mn in capital, selling credit decisioning, collections, and customer management tools to banks and fintechs. Meanwhile, Synapse Analytics — the Cairo-founded outfit behind the engine Tanmeyah is using — raised a USD 13 mn Series A led by Partech in mid-September.

A new fund in town

Cairo-born investment firm Acumen Holding launched “Eqtenas,” its first fund investing in EGX-listed equities and fixed-income instruments, with subscriptions opening tomorrow at a minimum buy-in of EGP 10, according to a press release (pdf). Units are priced at EGP 1 with a 10-unit minimum. The fund will start at EGP 10 mn and can grow to as much as EGP 250 mn depending on demand, roughly 25x its launch size. It’s a private placement to clients of four brokerages including Thndr and Mubasher, and the company says it secured the approvals it needs. The mandate can swing almost entirely out of stocks: Managers can allocate up to 90% of the fund to EGX-listed equities when valuations are attractive, or pivot up to 90% into fixed income — including T-bills — when they judge market risk has risen. Units can be bought daily once the offering closes and redeemed on Sundays and Wednesdays, with no subscription or redemption commission.

REFRESHER- Egypt’s investment fund industry has been growing across the board, from money market and metals to equities, with local asset managers seeing AUM rise notably, EFG Hermes’ Mohamed Abu Basha told us last month. But it’s still overwhelmingly a fixed-income business. Somewhere between 85% and 90% of industry assets sit in money market or fixed-income products, Menthum CEO Himanshu Shrimali told us earlier, leaving equities with only a small slice of an industry worth some EGP 411 bn in 1Q 2026.

Cooking up a Gourmet report

CFA Society Egypt kicked off the 16th edition of the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Egypt, with 27 university teams competing to produce a full equity research report on Gourmet Egypt, according to a press release (pdf). Local finals are set for 6 February 2027. The top team advances to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe regional round, while the runner-up gets a separate entry into a Middle East-only regional round. The Egypt leg runs alongside roughly 120 local competitions worldwide, part of a CFA Institute program spanning more than 1.1k universities and 7k students across 100 countries.