Khalid Ashmawy still remembers his first experience sending money home while studying in Europe.

At the time, he was pursuing a master's degree in Stuttgart and had just received his monthly stipend. When he wanted to send part of it back to his family in Cairo, he recalls the process being both slow and expensive — a $400 remittance could cost up to $40 in fees and take three business days to arrive.

Years later, even while working at Microsoft and Uber in the United States and eventually founding his own startup, this remittance experience hadn't improved much.

This recurring pain point throughout different stages of his career ultimately led Ashmawy to create Munify — a cross-border neobank designed to provide overseas Egyptians with faster, low-cost channels for sending money home, while also offering Egyptian residents the ability to open US bank accounts.

Earlier this year, the startup joined Y Combinator's summer 2025 batch. In a cohort dominated by generative AI startups, Munify stands out as one of the few non-US participants and among the rare companies not positioning AI as their core business proposition. The company has also raised $3 million in seed funding from YC and other regional investors including BYLD and DCG.

"The existing banking system wasn't designed for people like me. It's expensive, time-consuming, and fragmented," said Ashmawy, founder and CEO, in an interview with TechCrunch. "This is a problem I've personally experienced, and it resonates with many people who want to send money home quickly and efficiently."

Ashmawy grew up in Egypt studying computer science and developed an early interest in software. With scholarship support, he traveled to Europe, earning two master's degrees in Germany and Switzerland.

He then spent seven years working as an engineer and team lead at Microsoft and Uber — an experience that exposed him to disruptive technologies and the startup ecosystem.

Starting his own company seemed like the natural next step. In 2019, Ashmawy left Uber to co-found Huspy, a proptech platform focused on mortgage lending in the Middle East, backed by Founders Fund. He served as CTO until 2022.

After leaving Huspy, Ashmawy had more time to reflect on his immigrant experience, and the remittance problem resurfaced. Meanwhile, platforms like LemFi in Nigeria and Aspora in India had emerged in other emerging markets, helping immigrants from these countries send money home.

Egypt is one of the world's largest remittance markets, receiving nearly $30 billion in annual inflows.

While bank wire transfers and traditional remittance platforms like Western Union and MoneyGram remain mainstream options, Munify hopes to become the preferred choice among the growing number of digital banks — all promising cheaper and faster transfer services.

According to Ashmawy, Munify serves overseas Egyptians (primarily in the US, UK, Europe, and Gulf region) who want to send money home instantly at better exchange rates.

Additionally, Munify serves businesses, remote workers, and freelancers in the Middle East: with just local identification documents, they can open US bank accounts and receive debit cards for payments and spending while hedging against local currency volatility.

"Our core differentiator is that we're building our own payment rails and directly connecting banking systems across different countries," the CEO told TechCrunch. He mentioned that the platform launched two weeks ago and has already attracted thousands of registrations through word-of-mouth, gaining initial market validation.

"Our service experience is specifically tailored for users in this region," Ashmawy said.

On the enterprise side, Ashmawy revealed that Munify has signed contracts with several mid-sized and large companies, with these partnerships expected to generate over $50 million in monthly cross-border transaction volume.

The startup operates a dual "consumer + enterprise" business model: providing remittance and banking services to individuals while offering API access to businesses for cross-border payments. In the future, Munify plans to expand from Egypt to other Middle Eastern countries and surrounding regions, gradually integrating regional banking payment infrastructure.

Revenue sources include foreign exchange spreads, interchange fees, and payment processing-related income.

In recent years, YC's incubator programs have tended to favor AI and developer tools startups from the United States. So how did this Egyptian fintech company stand out? Ashmawy believes the key lies in the urgent nature of the problem it solves.

"If you're solving a big and urgent problem, that's what really matters — regardless of whether the current industry trend is AI or other areas," he said.

However, YC has precedent for investing in such companies. From Stripe to Coinbase, YC has historically invested in startups solving complex financial infrastructure problems. Similarly, remittances represent one of the most entrenched pain points in global finance, and before its recent pivot toward AI investments, YC consistently focused on remittance-related businesses when supporting emerging market startups (such as previously invested LemFi and Aspora).

In the current context, Munify's advantages include: a founder with experience at two major US tech giants, having built a leading proptech company in the Middle East, and having a personal connection to the problem being solved — all factors that made YC willing to provide support.