Tech in Africa
Investment in African startups fell in 2020 for the first drop in over a decade according to the 2020 Partech Partners report where Egypt topped the continent in the number of equity deals made – 86 (24% of the total) in 2020. The trend only seems to continue given the new deals made by Takestep, Nowpay, DilenyTech, among others. This is partly attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic causing jittery among investors who preferred to take a wait-and-see approach or invest their money on more fixed and less risky options.
The fintech ecosystem in Egypt is rising fast and Paymob has become one of the countries biggest players, only recently announcing the completion of an $18.5 million Serie A round. Last year we covered how paymob raised US$3.5 million from Global Ventures and FMO. An additional $15 million was raised by the same investors in a round led by Global Ventures (a Dubai-based VC firm), FMO and A15 fund.
Paymob has expanded to Kenya, Palestine and Pakistan with intentions of going deeper into Africa and the larger GCC. Bloomberg reports that a Saudi expansion is the main focus of the fintech startup having secured the new round.
Founded in 2015, Paymob is founded is led by Mostafa El Menessy, Islam Shawky, and Alain El-Hajj. The platform helps merchants online and offline accept customer payments on different products and solutions. The platform also has a POS system that can receive in-store payments.
Egypt has seen lots of activity in the venture capital space, especially after Sawari Ventures and Algebra Ventures made headlines.
