Mubadala, EBRD back Egypt’s Paymob

Mubadala and EBRD back Paymob in pre-Series C round: Cairo-born fintech Paymob landed a USD 35 mn pre-Series C round co-led by Mubadala and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), according to a joint statement (pdf). The UK government’s British International Investment (BII), Dubai-based Global Ventures, and DPI Ventures also chipped in. No valuation, stake, or comparison against Paymob’s last priced equity raise was disclosed.

The money is earmarked for expansion across the region, the release read, both in the core payments acceptance business and in new products aimed at SME merchants and agentic commerce (an approach to buying and selling in which AI agents act on behalf of consumers or businesses to research, negotiate, and complete purchases).

A growth-stage funding gap is what brought the sovereigns in: “I think we have a gap in the region in growth, VC capital,” co-founder and CEO of Paymob Islam Shawky told CNBC (watch, runtime: 4:13). “We’re happy that international investors and sovereigns are actually taking part in filling this gap when it comes to providing growth capital to companies like Paymob.” Mubadala’s check followed the UAE build-out specifically, he said, with the country now serving as the company’s hub in the Gulf.

The latest round takes Paymob’s total disclosed funding to roughly USD 125.5 mn, by our math. The fintech opened its Series A with USD 3.5 mn in August 2020 and closed it at USD 18.5 mn in 2021. This was followed by a USD 50 mn Series B in May 2022 led by Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Clay Point, with Helios Digital Ventures, BII, and Nclude joining the round. The EBRD first backed the company in September 2024, leading a USD 22 mn extension alongside Endeavor Catalyst, taking the Series B to USD 72 mn and total funding past USD 90 mn.

IN CONTEXT- This isn’t Mubadala’s first look at an Egyptian startup this year. The Abu Dhabi fund backed Egyptian grocery delivery startup Breadfast in a USD 50 mn round in February, also labeled a pre-Series C, with Saudi and Japanese money alongside it. Mubadala’s Egypt exposure has otherwise run through energy: portfolio company Mubadala Energy holds 10% of the Shorouk concession containing the Zohr gas field, 20% of the Nour North Sinai offshore concession, and a position in the Sumed pipeline, according to its website. Two venture checks in seven months put a different kind of Egyptian asset on the books.

Close to half of Paymob’s revenues are now coming from the GCC, and more specifically the UAE, Shawky told CNBC. The company’s Gulf top line rose sevenfold over the past 18 months against a tripling of the consolidated revenue across its four MENA markets — namely Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman — the statement read. The company has also operated in Pakistan since 2022, where it opened its first office outside Egypt.

About Paymob: Founded in 2015, Paymob runs an omnichannel payments platform — a gateway, POS terminals, SoftPOS, and payment links — that lets merchants take money online and in person, with more than 60 payment methods behind a single contract. It says it now serves more than 390k merchants.

ICYMI- Paymob became the first fintech to hold the Central Bank of Egypt’s payments facilitator licence in 2018. It launched in the UAE in 2022, picked up Saudi Payments’ payment technical service provider certification in May 2023, and became the first international fintech to win Oman’s payment service provider licence that December. The Central Bank of the UAE granted it a retail payment services licence early last year, covering merchant acquiring, payment aggregation, and domestic fund transfers.