Payment processor PayPal co-led a $50m series B round today for Egypt-based digital payment services provider Paymob to make contactless payments widespread in the region.
Founded in Cairo in 2015, Paymob provides omnichannel payment infrastructure that allows businesses to accept payments through multiple methods such as cards, QR codes, buy now pay later instalments, mobile wallets and more.
Through a partnership struck with payment processor Mastercard earlier this year, Paymob is offering mobile-based point-of-sale systems for merchants to accept contactless digital payments without the need of buying traditional point-of-sale devices, which can be prohibitively expensive.
A growing number of international businesses are also using Paymob’s infrastructure, including recent additions such as Decathlon, Virgin, Vodafone, LG, Chalhoub Group, Swvl, Homzmart and Breadfast.
It recently expanded into the Pakistani market and plans to follow up with entries into more markets across the Gulf region and North Africa. The company claims to have experienced a four-fold year on year growth in 2021 in terms number of merchants and monthly volume.
Kora Capital and Clay Point also co-led the round, which featured Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment (previously known as the CDC Group), A15, FMO and Nclude, a venture vehicle backed by Global Ventures and three Egypt-based financial services providers, namely Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire.
PayPal invested through its corporate venturing unit PayPal Ventures, whose other recent investments in digitalisation-focused companies include its participation in a $111m series B round for small business financial services platform Xepelin earlier this month.
Paymob’s co-founder and chief executive, Islam Shawky, said: “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.”
Paymob raised $3.5m in an initial series A tranche in 2020 with backing from Global Ventures, FMO and A15, all three of which returned for a follow-up tranche to close out the round with $18.5m in April last year.
A15 had previously invested an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2016.
Image courtesy of Paymob
