Paymob, a leading payments infrastructure provider in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has raised $35 million in a pre-Series C funding round to accelerate its expansion across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and develop new AI-powered solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The round includes investment from Mubadala’s Diversified Assets Unit under the UAE Investments Platform, further strengthening the fintech’s backing as it scales its payments infrastructure across the region.
The investment strengthens Paymob’s position as the UAE seeks to deepen its fintech ecosystem, enhance its status as a regional financial technology hub, and expand financial inclusion.
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The fresh capital will support Paymob’s continued expansion across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), scale its core payments acceptance business, and accelerate the development of new AI-powered solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Speaking on the funds raised, Islam Shawky, co-founder and CEO of Paymob, said,
“Paymob morphed into a regional platform over the past 18 months, propelled by the exponential growth of our GCC business.”
He added, “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.”
Paymob has also expanded its presence in the Gulf, onboarding approximately 20,000 merchants across its three GCC markets since receiving a Retail Payment Services Licence from the Central Bank of the UAE in January 2025.
Also commenting, Ali Eid Al Mheiri, Executive Director, UAE Diversified Assets, UAE Investments Platform at Mubadala, said Paymob’s expansion in the UAE aligns with the objectives of the MENA Venture Capital Fund to support companies that strengthen the country’s digital economy and reinforce its position as a regional FinTech hub.
He noted that Paymob’s scalable payments platform and growth prospects across the GCC position the company to support merchants, promote financial inclusion and contribute to economic diversification across the region.
Paymob is the leading financial services enabler in the MENA-P region. Founded in 2015, the fintech was the first company to receive the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) payment facilitator license in 2018.
It launched operations in Pakistan in 2021 and in the UAE in 2022. In 2023, Paymob received Saudi Payments PTSP certification, enabling it to launch operations in KSA. In 2025, Paymob received the Central Bank of the UAE’s retail payment services license authorizing it to offer a full suite of solutions to merchants in the UAE market.
Paymob’s mission is to fuel SME growth by offering a payments infrastructure that delivers the most innovative digital payments and solutions to businesses of all sizes. The fintech omnichannel financial technology platform enables merchants to accept online payments, make payments, manage their finances, and grow their businesses all in one place.
Paymob’s platform addresses the fragmented nature of payments infrastructure by allowing merchants to access more than 60 payment methods through a single contract, API, settlement cycle and dashboard. This model is designed to simplify payment acceptance and give SMEs a more streamlined way to manage transactions.
The fintech powers millions of transactions for some of the biggest names like Foodics, IKEA, Uber, and Shahid in addition to thousands of SMEs. Paymob serves the financial technology needs of over 390,000 merchants in the markets it operates in and employs 1,100 team members with offices in KSA, the UAE, Oman and Pakistan.
Outlook
Paymob’s latest funding is expected to strengthen its position in the fast-growing MENA digital payments market as merchants increasingly shift toward integrated payment, financial management, and AI-powered business tools.
The company’s expansion across the GCC also positions it to benefit from continued investment in digital commerce and financial technology infrastructure across markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.