He is an experienced engineer in the energy industry and a fintech entrepreneur. He is also the founder of Copal, a fintech startup that allows families to track and manage their expenses.

Ahmed Refaat (photo) is an Egyptian entrepreneur who graduated from Cairo University with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and from Said Business School at Oxford University with a Master's degree in Business Administration. He is also the CEO and a co-founder of fintech startup Copal.

The startup, founded in 2021, develops solutions to improve expense management. Using its eponymous AI-based app and personalized prepaid cards, its users can buy, pay, transfer, withdraw and save money with just one click. On February 15, the startup, which recently graduated from the Flat6Labs accelerator program in Cairo, entered into a strategic partnership with Mastercard to launch Egypt's first family payment and expense management app.

The new solution allows parents and guardians to track and manage their young dependents’ finances. It comes with simplified financial education tools that promote youth inclusion in the digitized payment ecosystem and help them become financially savvy.

“Copal’s vision is to fill the gap for the un- and under-banked through introducing a product that is tailored specifically for their every need. […]We are proud to partner with Mastercard, and we are confident that, with their leadership and support, Copal will grow and expand as fast as we ambitiously planned,” said Ahmed Refaat.

Before Copal, in 2016, the CEO had co-founded Odqa Renewable Energy Technologies, an “engineering spin-out from Oxford Thermofluids Institute.” He served as the company's chief technical officer until 2021 and as chief operating officer between 2020 and 2021.

His professional career began in 2007 with Schlumberger, a technology company unlocking energy access for the benefit of all. He joined the company as a field engineer before being promoted to general field engineer in 2013.  In 2014 he was named technical and sales support engineer and in 2015, he became the company's wireline account manager.

Melchior Koba