The agreement is part of BKN301's international growth strategy, which aims to become the leading open-market and cross-border operator in the Open Banking and digital payments sector, bringing its solutions to international markets with a strong focus on fast-growing markets (Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe), where there is high demand of digital payments solutions and very little supply, and are characterised by a population with a low average age, rapid demographic growth, high mobile penetration and significant literacy in payment-related technologies.

Egypt, with more than 100 million inhabitants, represents one of the emerging markets with the highest growth potential 23% of people are using digital platforms to send and receive their digital payments, due to the insufficient number of POS available to merchants and low uptake of payments by cards.

The BaaS platform developed by BKN301, through its digital wallet and 301XB, a product that enables cross-border transactions, will allow Damen to provide new features & solutions to its customers and facilitate transactions with key Egyptian trading partners in the GCC countries. Through the technology provided by BKN301 Group, and once all regulatory approvals have been obtained, Damen's customers will be able to send money internationally to more than 100 countries (including markets that are more difficult to reach due to the lack of common systems) using over 50 currencies, while having extreme visibility over fees, processing times and transaction monitoring.

In partnership with Cashflo, a Cairo based fintech company, and Switchover, a Swiss fintech accelerator, BKN301 aims to spread its digital banking solutions throughout the MENA region.

Dr. Tamer El-Hussainy, CEO of Damen Company for Electronic Payments expressed the full support of Damen and its shareholders for this partnership that is offering innovative banking services and empowers customers.

Stiven Muccioli, Founder and CEO of BKN301, comments: "This new agreement confirms the validity of our offer tailored to the needs of markets, such as Egypt, where the low diffusion of digital payment methods among the population offer high development prospects in the near future. We are very happy that a leading operator, Damen has seen in us and in our platform that offers financial and payment services a great opportunity for growth, not only for the company, but for the whole country, accelerating the digitilization of the payments market in Egypt, still very much tied to the use of cash, especially in remotely connected areas".

Dr. Sami Chaouch, vice-Chairman of Cashflo SAE, comments: “We are very excited to join the talent, knowledge and global reach of our partners. These innovative solutions shall bring to the market powerful, universal, and customized solutions developed by a multicultural team. By integrating complex systems in the most efficient way, we shall provide customers with the best user experience”