Paymob, a Cairo-based digital payments service provider, has raised $50 million to fund its expansion across the Mena region.
The series B round was led by US-based emerging markets investment company Kora Management, PayPal Ventures and London-based Clay Point.
Paymob co-founder and chief executive Islam Shawky said completing this “significant” fund-raising with the support of renowned international investors was a “a major endorsement of the strategy we have implemented to date and the scale of the opportunities we can harness”.
Last month, Paymob began its global expansion by setting up base in Pakistan. The company plans to enter Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE this year.
“Paymob shares our mission and ambition of advancing digital payments adoption — it has made impressive strides in supporting the growth and success of underserved SMBs [small and medium-sized businesses],” said Ashish Aggarwal, director of PayPal Ventures.
“We are honoured to be investing at a critical point in their journey, as Paymob scales game-changing solutions to bridge the FinTech gap for businesses across the Middle East and Africa.”
Founded in 2015 by Mr Shawky, Alain El Hajj and Mostafa Menessy, Paymob allows online and offline merchants to accept electronic payments from their customers using various products and solutions.
Egypt’s FinTech sector has been flourishing, thanks to the opportunity of a largely cash-based society, the support of new central bank regulations and an influx of investments.
Last year, Egyptian start-ups raised a record $491m in 147 deals and attracted the highest percentage of foreign investors in the Mena region, according to data platform Magnitt.
FinTech accounted for 17 per cent of total deals closed in the country.
In the Mena region, FinTech start-ups recorded a 183 per cent yearly growth in funding last year as the Covid-19 pandemic hastened the adoption of cashless payments, Magnitt said.
Kora Management founder Nitin Saigal said they were excited to go into partnership with Paymob “as they innovate at scale in the offline merchant acquiring and online payment gateway space”.
“The Paymob team is leveraging key structural changes taking place across Egypt and the Middle East, as these economies evolve from being primarily cash-led to a digital heavy mode of transacting,” Mr Saigal said. “We look forward to the road ahead.”
Other new investors in Paymob’s latest round included Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment and Nclude.
British International Investment is the development finance institution of the UK government while Nclude is an $85m FinTech fund managed by Dubai-based Global Ventures and financed by Egypt’s three largest banks.
Egyptian early stage venture capital firm A15, Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO and Global Ventures, all existing investors, also participated, after taking part in Paymob’s $18.5m series A round last April.
The Covid-19 pandemic helped to drive growth in online payments as consumers turned to digital payment channels, forcing businesses to adapt. The number of merchants and Paymob’s monthly volumes grew by four times a year in December, the company said.
The payments provider has signed up more than 100,000 merchants during the past two and a half years — part of its plan to reach a million small and medium enterprises across the region.
Paymob’s products include bank cards, mobile wallets, QR payments, card instalments, consumer finance and buy now, pay later offerings.
In November, the company teamed up with Mastercard to launch tap-on-phone contactless payments in Egypt.
The $68.5m raised by Paymob makes it one of the most well-funded start-ups in the region. Nasdaq-listed mass transit app Swvl raised $42m in 2019 in what was Egypt's largest series B round then.
Last September, Egypt's MNT-Halan raised $120m, the largest amount of financing in the Mena region.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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