Egyptian Fintech Pioneer PayMob Raises $50 Million Series B Round

On the back of announcing its expansion into Pakistan, Egyptian fintech powerhouse, PayMob, has added another notch on its belt with the reveal that it has raised a $50 million Series B round led by Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Clay Point, with participating investors including Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment, and Nclude. All existing investors including A15, FMO, and Global Ventures also participated.

Since its founding in 2015 by Alain El Hajj, Islam Shawky and Mostafa El Menessy, Paymob has established itself as a leader in online and offline payment solutions for merchants in Egypt. In 2020 their revenue skyrocketed by five times, and their user base grew outside of Egypt to include merchants and underserved SMEs from Kenya, Palestine and, of course, Pakistan.

“We are thrilled to complete this significant fundraising with the support of such renowned international investors including, PayPal Ventures, the venture capital arm of a global pioneer in the digital payment space. It is a major endorsement of the strategy we have implemented to date and the scale of the opportunities we can harness,” said Islam Shawky, Paymob’s co-founder and CEO.

The investment marks another notch on the collective belt of the Egyptian fintech sector that is on the rise. Egyptian fintech startups raised $159 million in 2021, an impressive jump from 2020’s $37.1 million. The number of startups finding investment also experience a small but significant bump, rising from 25 in 2020 to 32 2021. The best is yet to come, though, especially considering that the fintech sector in Egypt is still somewhat nascent. Around 43% of startups operating in the space are said to be looking for seed funding, while 32% are still at pre-seed or bootstrapping stages.