How Valu Is Reinventing Egypt’s Fintech Landscape

For years, Valu has stood out as one of Egypt’s leading Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platforms. But its latest performance signals a much larger transformation. Valu is no longer just a point-of-sale lending player. It is evolving into a full-fledged payments and lifestyle ecosystem, rewriting what a fintech can become in emerging markets.

This shift from episodic lending to everyday payments is not just a product change—it’s a strategic pivot driving explosive growth, deeper user loyalty, and a defensible competitive moat.

From Loans to Daily Payments: The Usage Shift

Valu’s financials tell the story of a company successfully scaling both revenue and profitability. In the first nine months of 2025, the company posted EGP 4.03bn ($85.6m) in gross revenue—an 84% year-on-year (YoY) jump. Net income surged 139% to EGP 541mn ($11.5m), signaling strong operational efficiency.

But the true shift lies in user behavior.

• GMV increased 56% to EGP 17.3bn
• Transactions skyrocketed by 107% to 6.1 million
• Average transactions per user jumped from 7.9 to 13.6 (75% YoY increase)

The data reveals a move away from occasional large-ticket loans to high-frequency everyday spending. Valu is becoming less of a finance app and more of a lifestyle payment companion.

The Game Changer: Valu Prepaid Card

Launched just over a year ago, the Valu Prepaid Card has emerged as the backbone of this shift. It allows users to spend their credit limits across the entire Egyptian economy, not just at Valu-partnered merchants.

• Activated cards grew 221% YoY to 218,000
• Average daily spend hit EGP 16.7mn ($355,000), up 123%
• Spending-to-top-up ratio: 3:1, proving card usage is now mainstream, not occasional

The card is not just an access tool—it is the new face of Valu’s ecosystem.

A Bold Strategy: Cannibalizing Its Own Legacy Product

Valu openly acknowledged that the prepaid card is increasingly replacing Sha2labaz, its invoice-based cash loan product. Sha2labaz’s GMV share dropped by 316 basis points, while the prepaid card jumped by 880 basis points to reach 17.5% of total GMV.

This deliberate “self-disruption” shows Valu prioritizing long-term ecosystem strength over protecting outdated revenue streams

Engagement, Data, and Risk: The New Competitive Moat

Valu’s transformation creates a virtuous cycle of engagement and intelligence:

✔ Deeper engagement – Users now rely on Valu for groceries, fuel, coffee—not just furniture or electronics.
✔ New revenue streams – Non-interest prepaid card fees surged from EGP 7mn to EGP 60mn ($1.3m).
✔ Exceptional risk control – Non-performing loan (NPL) ratio fell to 0.92%, one of the lowest globally.
✔ Portfolio discipline – Weighted Average Tenor (WAT) rose from 15 to 18 months, driven by larger, higher-quality loans.
✔ Approval rate of 46% – Proof of strong underwriting without sacrificing growth.

This balance of engagement and risk discipline is rare in the consumer finance industry especially at scale.

Funding Strength: The Invisible Advantage

Valu has secured EGP 11.2bn ($238m) in bank facilities and executed 18 securitization waves worth EGP 17.7bn. In Q3 alone, it conducted two additional securitization deals worth EGP 1.93bn ($41m).

This demonstrates significant institutional confidence, allowing Valu to grow without depending solely on bank lending or equity raises.

Regional Expansion and Execution Risk

Valu has received initial approval from the Central Bank of Jordan to launch operations, signaling regional ambitions. However, expanding beyond Egypt introduces regulatory and operational risks.

Additionally, while the prepaid card promotes digital payments, 10% of transactions are now ATM cash withdrawals—bringing back some off-network behavior, though useful for acquiring unbanked users.

Strategic Partnerships: Turning Onboarding Into Acquisition

In September, Valu launched a groundbreaking integration with noon, the region’s largest e-commerce marketplace. Customers can now access Valu credit instantly without downloading the app making noon both a marketplace and a customer acquisition channel.

This marks Egypt’s first licensed BNPL digital onboarding transaction under a FinTech license.

The Bottom Line

Valu is executing a rare fintech evolution: transitioning from a loan-based provider to a payments-integrated, data-rich, lifestyle platform.

Its strategy moving from credit access to credit utility is unlocking deeper engagement, diversified revenues, and superior risk control.

As Valu scales, its biggest challenge will not be growth but maintaining the discipline that made that growth possible.

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