A unit of Naspers, Africa’s biggest company by value, and Egypt’s largest bank invested in Lucky, to help the fintech start-up in the North African nation expand in the region and the Middle East.

Lucky, which counts Lorax Capital as an investor, raised US$25-million (R371-million) in the funding round led by Nclude, the start-up said in a statement. Naspers unit PayU, Global Ventures, National Bank of Egypt, Venture Souq, Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, Endeavor Catalyst, OTF, Arzan Capital and Disruptech were among the other backers. The company provides credit products and manages cashback rewards.

Lucky is “prioritising markets with a sizeable population, low credit penetration and similar macroeconomic dynamics to Egypt,” co-founder and CEO Momtaz Moussa said in response to e-mailed questions.

Investors from across the globe are increasingly targeting African start-ups — both fintech and companies providing last-mile delivery — to capitalise on the vast numbers of both online and people without bank accounts in the continent of 1.4 billion people. Earlier this month, US private equity firms Tiger Global and Avenir Growth Capital led a funding round for Kenyan e-commerce platform Sokowatch at a $625-million valuation. — (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP