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Paymob, a licensed payment facilitator that enables businesses to accept both online and offline payments, has raised a $50-million Series-B round led by PayPal Ventures, PayPal’s global corporate venture arm, New York-based venture capital Kora Capital and London-based Clay Point.
Paymob was founded in 2015 by Egyptian tech entrepreneurs Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj and Mostafa Menessy.
The startup, which raised $18.5 million in Series-A funding round last year, plays a vital role in the digital financial transformation initiatives sponsored by the Central Bank of Egypt, which is set to transform Egypt’s financial inclusion landscape in the foreseeable future.
Its recently completed Series-B round included participation from other investors such as Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment, Nclude and Global Ventures. It is Egypt’s largest fintech Series-B round, bringing Paymob’s total funding to more than $68.5 million, making the platform one of the most funded companies in the region.
The round will be critical to its strategic expansion plans as it continues to provide underserved small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with better access to digital financial services.
The multimillion-dollar funding will be used to expand its product line, strengthen its position in the Egyptian market and propel its entry into new markets across the Middle East and North Africa, according to management.
In an effort to deepen its operations in MENA, Paymob has now launched in Pakistan following rapid growth in its home market of Egypt, as well as impressive adoption in Jordan and Kenya, where it services tens of thousands of merchants such as LG, Samsonite, Talabat, Uber and Virgin Records, as well as SMEs.
“We are thrilled to be launching Pakistan.” This is an important step in our successful journey of leading the Egyptian payments landscape, where we provide innovative financial solutions to tens of thousands of merchants,” Shawky, Paymob’s CEO and co-founder, said.
Paymob has facilitated more than 120 million transactions worth over EGP6 billion ($324.6 million) since its inception nearly seven years ago through its payment channel, which connects more than 12 million users and 150,000 agents.
