Mohamed Essam Sid-Ahmed
Mohamed Essam Sid-Ahmed
Head of FinTech and ECVC
Mohamed is a Partner and a Corporate and M&A team member. He also heads the firm’s FinTech, Emerging Companies & Venture Capital (ECVC) sector group and operates from our Egypt and UAE offices. He has extensive experience in finance and technology and a combined knowledge when it comes to FinTech. He also advises on commercial, M&A, and capital market transactions. He advised on a variety of complex FinTech and M&A deals and assisted the biggest players in the FinTech industry ranging from local, regional, multinational, and international clients.
Referring to Mohamed, recent periodicals have stated:
Practice Focus
Mohamed’s practice focuses on all matters relating to FinTech companies (including savings, payments, and crowdfunding) on their negotiations with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the commercial banks with the aim of obtaining CBE’s permit to operate, as well as advising start-ups on their different levels of fundraising including, seed, pre-series A bridge, series A to series E+ which transactions are usually consummated via either convertible notes, KISS notes or SAFEs. Furthermore, Mohamed advises on complex M&A transactions which entail drafting, reviewing, and negotiating, inter alia, preliminary agreements (e.g., term sheets, LoI, MoU), the transaction documents including SHAs, SPAs, SSHA in addition to advising on the deal structure from tax efficiency perspectives.
Selected Recent Experience
- Represented MoneyFellows Technologies Holding Limited a company based in the UK, as a lead counsel, being one of the leading FinTech companies in its pre-Series A and Series A investment round, Pre-Series B and Series B fundraising rounds, against Partech Africa SLP, Sawari Ventures, Proparco, British International Investment, and others with a total investment amount of up to USD 40 million.
- Represented Lucky App, as a co-counsel with Wilson Sonsini, one of the leading card issuers and discounts companies in its Series A investment round, against PayU, Nclude, Arzan VC, Endeavors Catalysts, and others with a total investment amount of up to USD 25 million.
- Represented a loyalty scheme company in its investment round amounting to USD 20 million, which transaction encompassed primary and secondary components with the full exit of the former investor.
- Represented Ezdehar as a lead transactional and local counsel in the acquisition of a minority stake in the share capital of Yodawy, a Health-Tech startup as part of Series B fundraising round, with an investment amount of US$10,000,000.
- Represented Blnk B.V., being the holding company of one of the leading consumer finance companies in Egypt, as a lead counsel in its Seed and Series A rounds against EIIC, Sawari Ventures, and Algebra with a total investment amount of US$17,000,000
- Represented a tricycles and automotive manufacturing Group on its sale of a 47% stake to an international private equity with a deal value exceeding USD 25 million.
- Represented SPE Capital on its acquisition of a substantial stake in Future Pharmaceutical Industries with an investment amount of USD 23 million.
- Represented a local agriculture family business company in its buyout transaction to a regional agriculture company with an investment amount up to USD 19 million.
- Represented Helios Investment (as a local counsel) on its acquisition of 76% stake in TPay Group, a mobile payment platform and direct carrier billing service provider, from A15.
- Advised Dsquares, a leading technology and loyalty schemes provider, on its sale of 22.7% to Ezdehar in a transaction amounting to EGP 100 million.
- Advised a joint venture in respect of one of the first sports management companies with a value of US$14 million.
- Representing a notable asset management company in its acquisition of 100% of the share capital of a reputable securities brokerage company with a total value of EGP 65 million.
- Advised a leading investment bank on its acquisition of minority stake in artificial intelligence-based credit scoring company in Egypt.
- Representing a notable asset management company in its acquisition of 100% of the share capital of a third-party administrator company.
- Advised an Egyptian investment bank on the set-up of a direct investment limited partnership company (GP/LP) with a targeted volume of EGP 2 billion.
- Advised MoneyFellows, throughout four years, on the regulatory framework of FinTech in Egypt and successfully reached an unprecedented agreement with the Central Bank of Egypt to legalize the legal status of is activities.
- Advised one of the leading saving FinTech companies on its savings offerings by elaborating an innovative structure preventing its offering of being assimilated to banking activities.
- Advised a leading crowdfunding FinTech company on its crowdfunding structure in a manner enabling it to partially provide crowdfunding services in Egypt and negotiating its legal status with CBE and FRA.
- Represented a leading payment service provider and a supply chain technology company on their joint venture company fully digitizing the FMCG supply chain line of business.
- Undertook the incorporation and legal operational structure of 100+ startups’ companies varying different scope of activities with concentration on FinTech and technology companies.
- Advised one of the leading asset management companies in Egypt on the establishment and the information memoranda of its private equity with a targeted volume of EGP 2.5 billion.
- Acted as lead counsel for several startups’ accelerators and incubators including Flat6labs, Vodafone Ventures and others, and advised more than 80 investee/incubated companies.
- Representing Tarek Nour Group on their day-to-day advertising and media agreements having advised production of Talk Shows, and potential short movies.
- Representation of a notable cinema company in Egypt and the Middle Est regarding the financing of a movie and its distribution in Egypt and GCC having value exceeding USD 15,000,000.
- Representation of Al Qahera Wal Nas TV in the production and financing of Al Abakera TV Show.
Education
The University of Law – Solicitors Qualifying Exam Preparation
2024
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium) – Corporate Finance Diploma
2017
Panthéon Sorbonne University (IDAI Cairo) Masters’ Degree in International and European Business Law, Trade and Tax
2017
Cairo University (Egypt): Bachelor of Law
2016
Université Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne (IDAI Cairo): Bachelor of Law
2015
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium) – Social Psychology and Profiling Diploma
2015
Professional Associations and Memberships