Egypt's Paymob Raises $35 Million in Funding

Paymob Secures $35 Million in Pre-Series C Funding

A recent funding round has yielded $35 million for Paymob, a payments infrastructure company founded in Egypt, with Mubadala Investment Company and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development serving as co-leaders. Additional participants in the round included British International Investment, Global Ventures, and DPI Ventures, as noted in a statement released by the fintech company. This investment brings Paymob’s total disclosed funding to over $125 million, building upon a $50 million Series B funding round in 2022 and a $22 million extension in 2024, which was led by the EBRD.

Established in 2015 by founders Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj, and Mostafa Menessy, Paymob’s platform enables merchants to process online and in-store transactions through a unified technology layer. The company currently connects businesses with more than 60 payment methods across its operating markets and provides services to over 390,000 merchants in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. Following the receipt of a Retail Payment Services Licence from the Central Bank of the UAE in January 2025, Paymob has added approximately 20,000 merchants across its three GCC markets.

Over the past 18 months, Paymob has experienced significant growth, with consolidated revenue increasing threefold and revenue from GCC markets rising sevenfold. As a result, GCC markets now account for nearly half of the company’s total revenue. According to CEO Islam Shawky, “Paymob morphed into a regional platform over the past 18 months, propelled by the exponential growth of our GCC business.” The company is targeting a fragmented payments market where merchants often face the challenge of integrating with multiple local card networks, buy-now-pay-later providers, and bank installment systems. Paymob’s platform offers a solution by allowing merchants to access various payment options through a single contract, API, and dashboard.

The investment by Mubadala reflects the company’s increasing focus on supporting the UAE’s digital economy and regional technology ecosystem. For the EBRD, this investment represents a continuation of its support for Paymob as the company expands its reach from an Egypt-focused fintech to a broader regional payments infrastructure provider. Paymob’s existing investors include PayPal Ventures, Kora Capital, Clay Point Capital, FMO, A15, Helios Digital Ventures, Global Ventures, and DPI Ventures. The company plans to utilize the funds to expand its digital payments acceptance business across the MENA region and accelerate the development of products for agentic commerce, an emerging field that involves software agents searching, selecting, and transacting with merchants on behalf of consumers or businesses.