Paymob, an Egypt-based digital payments provider, has announced an $18.5 million Series A round, led by Global Ventures, with participation from A15 and FMO.

The first part of the investment was raised in summer 2020.

Paymob empowers underserved SMEs with improved and more accessible digital payments offerings as part of the Central Bank of Egypt’s efforts and initiatives towards nationwide digital financial inclusion.

Paymob’s mobile wallets infrastructure processes over 85% market share of transactions throughput in the Egyptian market and serves merchants across five different markets including Kenya, Pakistan, and Palestine. 

In payment acceptance, Paymob’s monthly revenue grew over 5x in 2020, and its technology is used across economic sectors by over 35,000 local Egyptian and global merchants, such as Swvl, ElGouna, and Tradeline, the startup states. 

Islam Shawky, Paymob CEO and Co-Founder said, “We couldn’t be more excited for Paymob’s next phase of growth; the market opportunity in the region is unprecedented. The large digital payments gap still exists and we are delighted to be working with progressive-thinking regulators to address this. This latest capital raise will accelerate our progress to reducing the digital payments bottleneck. All our existing investors have increased their holdings, and we thank them both for their support and the confidence they have in our business model and track record of execution.”

Basil Moftah, Global Ventures’ General Partner commented,  “We are delighted to lead this momentous FinTech fundraise in the region. Paymob has a perfect combination of high-quality technology, products customers increasingly cannot do without, and an outstanding management team. Their market opportunity is also huge; Egypt’s transformation to a cashless society is being enabled by the unique products Paymob has built. We look forward to continuing supporting their expansion.”

A15’s Chairman, Karim Beshara, stated, “As one of Paymob’s earliest backers, we are always proud to support a young and passionate team revolutionizing the development and advancement of financial systems in Egypt, our region, and beyond. Paymob’s team has shown great returns with very limited resources. Witnessing the impact of facilitating financial services to millions of end-consumers and tens of thousands of merchants coupled with hypergrowth has been a very fulfilling experience for A15.”

Jaap Reinking, Director Private Equity at FMO added, “Paymob is an excellent fit with FMO’s Ventures Program based on its exceptional team, innovative payment solutions, and proven capability to include thousands of underserved Egyptian merchants into financial services offered by the company and its partners. We are proud to be part of the journey of Paymob in Egypt and excited to support the team throughout their next phase.”

Paymob will use proceeds to continue expanding its merchant network, meet increasing demand, enhance its suite of products further, and fuel its regional expansion efforts, including Saudi Arabia in 2021.