Paymob Leads Africa and Middle East Startup Funding With $35M Round

Startups across Africa, the Middle East and Israel raised a combined $133.8 million in disclosed funding this week, with investor capital flowing mostly into fintech and AI, according to Techloy's weekly funding tracker.

Cairo-based payments company Paymob picked up the biggest check: $35 million. Mubadala and the EBRD co-led the growth round, joined by several other investors. Paymob processes payments for more than 390,000 businesses across Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The company will use the capital to expand across the Middle East and build new tools for smaller merchants.

Four other rounds trailed close behind, ranging from $18 million to $30.8 million.

The week's largest disclosed rounds

1. Paymob — $35M — Fintech — Egypt. The Mubadala-EBRD growth round marks the largest deal of the week. Paymob's merchant network spans four markets, and the fresh capital targets both regional expansion and product development for small and medium-sized merchants.

2. Mission Mobile — $30.8M — Fintech — South Africa. Mission Mobile decides who can get a smartphone on a payment plan when conventional credit checks say no. DN Invest is providing up to R500 million — roughly $30.8 million — as a loan rather than an equity purchase. Techloy reports it is not yet clear whether the company has drawn the full amount. The money is meant to fund expansion through mobile network stores.

3. Chamelio — $26M — Legal AI — Israel. Chamelio builds AI that drafts and reviews contracts for corporate legal teams. The startup closed a $26 million Series A led by Entrée Capital, with additional investors participating. The funds will go toward building out the AI product, hiring more engineers, and helping customers migrate off legacy legal software.

What the numbers show

The week's deal flow concentrates in two sectors: fintech and artificial intelligence. Two of the top three disclosed rounds went to payments and device financing companies, while the third went to an Israeli legal AI developer. The geographic spread spans Egypt, South Africa and Israel, three of the region's most active startup hubs.

The deal structures also vary. Paymob's round is equity growth capital from institutional heavyweights. Mission Mobile's facility is debt — a loan of up to R500 million — a structure that lets DN Invest fund expansion without diluting founders. Chamelio raised a conventional Series A.

The remaining disclosed rounds in the $18 million to $30.8 million band bring the weekly total to $133.8 million, a figure Techloy bases solely on rounds with publicly disclosed amounts. Undisclosed deals would push the true total higher.

For Paymob, the Mubadala and EBRD backing signals continued institutional appetite for payments infrastructure serving the Gulf and North Africa, even as the company pushes deeper into merchant tools for smaller businesses. For Mission Mobile, the debt structure suggests lenders see device financing for thin-file borrowers as a scalable, collateralized business. And Chamelio's $26 million Series A points to sustained venture interest in applied AI for back-office functions like legal work — a trend that shows no sign of slowing in the region.