Arab Finance: Cairo-based Payments infrastructure provider Paymob has raised $35 million in a pre-Series C funding round to expand its digital payment acceptance business across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and introduce new products for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) merchants and agentic commerce, as per an emailed press release.

British International Investment (BII), Global Ventures, and DPI Ventures participated in the round, co-led by Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The new investment follows a period of growth across Paymob’s four markets. The company’s consolidated revenue tripled over the past 18 months, while revenue from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets rose sevenfold and now accounts for nearly half of its total revenue.

Paymob has also added around 20,000 merchants across its three GCC markets since receiving a Retail Payment Services Licence from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) in January 2025.

“Paymob morphed into a regional platform over the past 18 months, propelled by the exponential growth of our GCC business. This Pre-Series C funding round will help us accelerate our growth plan across the MENA region and fast-track our product roadmap to become the go-to payments platform for agentic commerce," Islam Shawky, co-founder and chief executive officer of Paymob, said. "We are very excited about Mubadala joining our cap table and grateful for the continued support of our existing shareholders.” 

Paymob operates an omnichannel financial technology platform through which businesses can accept online and offline payments, process transactions, manage their finances, and access other services through a single technology layer.

The company is seeking to simplify a regional payment landscape that includes buy now, pay later (BNPL) providers, local card networks, and bank installment services that vary by market. Merchants may need to handle seven or eight payment methods, each involving separate integrations, commercial arrangements, and settlement cycles.

Through one contract, an application programming interface (API), and a unified dashboard, Paymob gives merchants access to more than 60 payment methods.

Bruno Lusic, venture capital and growth investor at the EBRD, commented: "Paymob has built the payments infrastructure that MENA's SME economy has been missing, a single, scalable layer that removes friction for merchants and unlocks growth across markets that have historically been underserved by digital finance. This investment reflects EBRD's continued commitment to backing high-growth fintech champions. We are proud to support Paymob's next phase of expansion across the GCC and beyond.”