MoneyHash hires Hwan Lee as Africa regional director in continental expansion

MoneyHash, a Middle East and Africa-born startup that provides payment orchestration infrastructure for businesses, has appointed Hwan Lee as its Regional Director for Africa as the company plans its expansion across the continent.

Lee joins MoneyHash after more than eight years at Ozow, a South African electronic funds transfer (EFT) systems provider, where he most recently served as Head of Partnerships. Earlier in his career at Ozow, Lee also held senior commercial and business development roles focused on expanding merchant relationships and market reach.

The appointment aligns with MoneyHash’s ambition of building what it previously described as a fully agnostic payments infrastructure layer capable of aggregating payment Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and technical capabilities across providers and markets, which it could achieve by hiring the right people.

“Africa represents one of the most exciting growth opportunities in global payments today,” said Nader Abdelrazik, Chief Executive Officer of MoneyHash. “Hwan’s leadership experience and deep market understanding will be instrumental as we expand across the continent and help businesses scale with greater control, flexibility, and efficiency.”

Founded in early 2021 by Abdelrazik and Mustafa Eid, MoneyHash started as a payment orchestration platform focused on emerging markets, where businesses often struggle with fragmented payment systems. 

The company has since positioned itself as infrastructure that sits between merchants and payment providers, enabling businesses to integrate multiple gateways through one API instead of building separate integrations for each market. It offers smart payment routing, multi-currency payment processing, and a unified dashboard for complete operational control. 

As Regional Director for Africa, Lee will oversee MoneyHash’s commercial strategy and market development efforts across the continent, which will include strengthening partnerships with payment providers and merchants and driving business growth across priority markets.

MoneyHash noted that Lee already played a role in expanding relationships with companies operating in African markets, including Luno, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, Lumepay, a digital payments company, and Moove, the Uber-backed vehicle financing startup.

“I’m excited to join MoneyHash and help merchants unlock growth through stronger payment operations and modern infrastructure,” Lee said.

The startup raised a $4.5 million seed round in early 2024 and a $5.2 million pre-Series A round in 2025. In its statement, it identified Africa as one of the core pillars of its international growth strategy, citing growth in digital commerce and cross-border payments across the continent.