Paymob’s latest funding round signals a change in the growth model of one of Egypt’s most prominent fintech companies, as the Gulf becomes increasingly central to its revenue base.
The Cairo-founded payments company raised $35mn in a pre-Series C round, co-led by Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with British International Investment, Global Ventures and DPI Ventures also participating.
More significant than the capital raised is the changing geography of Paymob’s business. The company said consolidated revenue had tripled over the past 18 months, while revenue from its GCC markets increased sevenfold. The Gulf now contributes close to half of total revenue.
That shift moves Paymob beyond the profile of an Egyptian payments company expanding abroad towards that of a regional platform whose next stage of growth is increasingly tied to Gulf markets.
Paymob entered the UAE in 2023 and secured a Retail Payment Services licence from the Central Bank of the UAE in January 2025. It has since added about 20,000 merchants across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Across MENA, the company serves more than 390,000 merchants and connects businesses to more than 60 payment methods through a single integration.
The model addresses a persistent challenge for companies operating across the region: fragmented payment systems, local regulations and differing consumer preferences. Paymob’s value proposition therefore extends beyond processing transactions to reducing the technological and operational complexity of accepting payments across multiple markets.
The investment also reinforces the Gulf dimension of its expansion. Mubadala gives Paymob a major UAE institutional shareholder, while the EBRD is increasing its backing after participating in an earlier financing round.
For Egypt’s technology sector, Paymob also illustrates a broader regional pathway: building scale in Egypt’s large domestic market before using that base to enter higher-income Gulf economies.
The new capital will support further regional expansion, products for small and medium-sized enterprises and development in agentic commerce, where AI systems can initiate transactions on behalf of consumers.
For Paymob, Egypt remains the foundation. But with the Gulf approaching half of revenue, its next phase is increasingly being shaped beyond its home market.
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