Cairo-Egypt-based Paymob, one of MENA’s leading financial services providers, on Wednesday 11 September, raised a massive $22 million Series B extension round – totaling to $72 million Series B funding for the company.
The Series B extension round for Paymobe was led by EBRD Venture Capital, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst. The round also saw participation from Paymob’s existing investors PayPal Ventures, BII, FMO, A15, Nclude, and Helios Digital Ventures.
The latest funding round came on the back of Paymob’s continued profitability in its home market Egypt. According to Paymob, the company has recorded 6x revenue growth since the initial Series B fundraising in Q2 2022.
With fresh capital in hand, Paymob aims for growth in Egypt and plans expansion across its newly penetrated markets to strengthen its position as one of the leading payment providers in the MENA region.
The initial Series B round allowed Paymob to expand across the GCC region. The round was led by Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Clay Point. According to the company, the investment enabled Paymob to launch its app in 2023 and grow its merchant base across the MENA region by 3.5x to serve nearly 350,000 merchants.
Founded in 2015 by Islam Shawky (CEO), Alain El-Hajj (COO), and Mostafa Menessy (CTO), Paymob became the first fintech company to receive the Central Bank of Egypt‘s (CBE) Payments Facilitator license in 2018.
Paymob was launched in the UAE in 2022 and received Saudi Payments PTSP certification in May 2023. In December 2023, Paymob became the first international fintech company to receive Oman’s PSP licence.
Paymob has recently launched embedded checkout experiences on e-commerce platforms Shopify and WooCommerce to meet its commitment to power regional SME growth.
Speaking of the development, Islam Shawky, co-founder and CEO of Paymob, said, “We are very excited by our strong prospects in Egypt, where we hold a market-leading position, and the significant traction experienced in the UAE since launching operations there. This funding will help Paymob fully capitalise on the momentum in our established markets as we accelerate our GCC roll-out. We remain committed to creating a cutting-edge infrastructure enabling SMEs across the region to thrive in the digital economy and are proud of our continued impact.”
Expressing their enthusiasm, Bruno Lusic of EBRD Venture Capital, said, “We are extremely excited to support Paymob as it embarks on the next chapter in its journey to create a market- leading, omni-channel, and multi-jurisdiction payment solutions provider in the MENA region. The payments landscape in Egypt and the broader MENA region is hugely exciting and is seeing rapid growth as economies transition to non-cash payment methods. We are convinced that Paymob is uniquely positioned to capitalise on that trend with its advanced technology and strong management team.”
Allen Taylor, Managing Partner at Endeavor Catalyst, shared, “At Endeavor, we have witnessed fintech in the Middle East gain increasing global attention. Building on this momentum, we are thrilled to support entrepreneurs Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj, and Mostafa Menessy in this new round of regional expansion for Paymob, advancing their goals of enabling businesses to thrive in the digital economy. Since their selection as Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 2022, we have been dedicated to supporting their growth and are excited to see their journey unfold further.”
