Adham Azzam

Living and working in a country that isn’t your home while being thousands of miles away from your family and your roots is a burden on its own. It becomes exhausting, but one of the reasons the majority of migrant workers brave these odds is to be able to send a substantial portion of their hard-earned wages back home.

Adham Azzam, an experienced entrepreneur with a rich background in finance and investment, and his 20 years of experience understood this struggle intimately. While managing his previous startup in the UAE, a chance interaction with an employee sparked a transformative idea, eventually leading to the creation of Balad.

Mostafa (name changed for anonymity), an Egyptian migrant worker from Minia at Adham’s office, personified the struggles many migrants face in supporting their families back home. With a modest salary that rendered him ineligible for a standard bank account in the UAE, Mostafa received his pay through a salary card. The process of accessing his money and transferring it back home was both tedious and expensive, involving long queues at ATMs with other migrant workers, hunting for the best transfer rates across the city, and ending up paying disproportionally high transfer fees.

Half a world away, Mostafa’s family, themselves as well unbanked, would anxiously await the transfer notification. They then had to travel to the nearest city to find a branch of the bank that received the remittance, queue there and receive their funds in cash at the counter. The entire process would last 2 to 5 days on average. This convoluted process struck a chord with Adham. He knew change was needed.

Adham’s research revealed a global issue. One in seven people worldwide engage in sending or receiving remittances, with a staggering $700bn circulating globally each year. Egypt ranks as fifth-largest recipient of remittances, and for a large portion of its underbanked population, these transfers are their primary source of income. Transfer fees fluctuate between 4-11%, and in some cases, transfers can take more than a week to reach the intended recipients.

Moreover, the African diaspora, including Egyptians, send an annual total of $100bn back to their home countries. With Egypt receiving about $30bn each year, Egyptian migrants surpass all developmental loans, grants, and foreign direct investment combined, making them the largest investors in their home country. “This represents about 10% of the country’s GDP,” Adham observed.

Inspired to act, Adham approached Sally Asaad and Mohamed Assem with the idea for Balad. Sally has spent 17 years at Commercial International Bank (CIB), where she led innovation management and fintech and startup partnership, among other roles. Assem has over 20 years of experience in software engineering and technical management across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and has led technology teams in several Egyptian fintech companies. In short: a killer founding team. 

In 2022, the trio launched Balad, a remittance-focused fintech startup set to revolutionize the financial landscape for migrants and their families by offering reduced transfer fees and instant remittance delivery. Adham took on the role of CEO, with Sally as COO, and Mohamed as CTO.

Their mission is to simplify digital remittances for migrant families by issuing a card that provides recipients with instant access to transferred funds at lower fees, thereby introducing them to the world of digital finance. This vision aligns with the UN’s 10th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which aims to reduce the global average remittance fee from 7% to 3% within a decade and enhance financial inclusion for marginalized communities.

In 2023, Balad raised a USD seven-figure pre-seed investment round, led by Acasia Ventures and joined by Launch Africa, Future Africa, V&R, Magic Fund, First Circle, Sunny Side, and several family offices.

“Balad is led by a seasoned executive team that has demonstrated its ability to bring such a vital product to the market,” Acasia Ventures Managing Partner Aly El Shalakany said. “Its offering is very unique and distinctive in that it provides remittance receivers with a quick and cheap solution to financial access, broadening the umbrella of financial inclusion across Egypt and the GCC.”

With its innovative platform and ambitious objectives, Balad is set to reshape the financial landscape for migrant workers and their families, making remittances easier, faster, and more affordable.