Paymob, a payments infrastructure company founded in Egypt, raised $35m in a pre-Series C round announced on 21 September 2026. Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign investor, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) co-led the round, according to the company's announcement as published by Wamda.
British International Investment (BII), Global Ventures and DPI Ventures also took part. No valuation was disclosed.
Wamda reported that the round takes Paymob's total disclosed funding to more than $125m, while The Condia put the total at roughly $125m.
“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. We are very excited about Mubadala joining our cap table and grateful for the continued support of our existing shareholders.”Islam Shawky, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Paymob
What Paymob does
Paymob was founded in 2015 by Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj and Mostafa Menessy. It runs an omnichannel payments platform that lets merchants accept online and in-store payments, process transactions and manage their finances from one technology layer. The company says it serves more than 390,000 merchants across Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Its pitch rests on fragmentation. According to Paymob, merchants in the region typically need seven to eight payment methods, spanning buy-now-pay-later providers, local card networks and bank instalment products, each with its own integration and settlement cycle. Paymob offers access to more than 60 payment methods through one contract, one API and one dashboard. The Condia reported that it sells through a payment gateway, point-of-sale terminals, SoftPOS and payment links.
The company was first licensed by the Central Bank of Egypt. It entered the UAE in 2023, opened a Riyadh office the same year after obtaining a Payment Technical Service Provider licence from Saudi Payments, and opened an office in Oman in 2023.
Growth in the Gulf
Paymob tied the round to its results over the previous 18 months. In that period consolidated revenue across its four markets tripled and revenue from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets grew sevenfold, the company said. Close to half of its total revenue now comes from the GCC.
Since receiving a Retail Payment Services Licence from the Central Bank of the UAE in January 2025, Paymob has added roughly 20,000 merchants across its three Gulf markets.
Islam Shawky, co-founder and chief executive, said growth in the GCC had turned Paymob into a regional platform over that period. Ali Eid Al Mheiri, executive director for UAE diversified assets at Mubadala's UAE Investments Platform, said the deal fitted the aims of Mubadala's MENA Venture Capital Fund, which backs companies that strengthen the UAE's digital economy.
What the money is for
Paymob said the money will fund further expansion across the Middle East and North Africa. It plans to scale its core digital payments acceptance business and launch new products for its small and medium-sized merchants.
It also plans products for agentic commerce, which The Condia described as tools for software agents that make transactions on behalf of users. Shawky said the round would speed up the company's product roadmap in that area.
The funding so far
Before this round Paymob raised a $50m Series B in 2022 and a $22m Series B extension led by the EBRD in 2024, according to Wamda and The Condia.
Mubadala is a new shareholder. Paymob lists PayPal Ventures, Kora Capital, Clay Point Capital, FMO, A15, British International Investment, Helios Digital Ventures, Global Ventures and DPI Ventures among its investors.
The raise came as startup funding in the region slowed. Citing MAGNiTT data, The Condia reported that MENA startups raised $1.35bn across 214 deals in the first half of 2026, down 22% in value and 41% in deal count from a year earlier. Fintech funding in the region fell 9% to $617m across 57 deals.
Company website: paymob.com