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Not many ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley can boast successful tech startups launched by founders while still in school or shortly after dropping out. So, when such events occur in regions like the Middle East or Africa, the companies are worth paying attention to.
A decade ago, three college friends – Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj, and Mostafa Menessy – started an e-commerce platform in Egypt. Back then, e-commerce was just starting to take off, with only 2% of households in the country participating. The main hurdle was the lack of online payment methods.
Integrating a payment gateway from local banks with their e-commerce platform was a pain, so Shawky and his buddies came up with Paymob in 2015 as a payment infrastructure for digital wallets. Fast forward to today, Paymob has evolved into a versatile gateway offering over 50 payment methods, serving 350,000+ merchants across five countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Cross-selling services to a growing merchant base
Paymob has been on a roll, with its recent $22 million funding round leading to impressive growth. The fintech now serves over 350,000 merchants across five countries, up from just over 100,000 two years ago. The expansion was fueled by a major funding round and improvements to its product suite, including an app for small and medium businesses and new payment methods.
Rapid adoption of online payments in the UAE
Digital payment adoption is booming in Egypt and the Gulf region, with demand for digital payment methods growing rapidly. Paymob has seen immense growth in the UAE, matching its Egyptian business size in just 14 months. Despite this, Egypt remains Paymob’s largest market, with the CEO confident that the country is on track to reach the same level of digital payment adoption as the UAE.
Exciting times ahead for Paymob as it continues to revolutionize the digital payment landscape in Egypt and beyond!
