Technology
Paymob, Founded by Three College Friends, Earns Another $22 Million, Is Profitable in Egypt

Few ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley can boast successful tech startups founded by founders who were still in school or who recently dropped out of faculty, so when these events occur in regions just like the Middle East or Africa, it’s value listening to these firms.
A decade ago, Islam Shawky, Alaina El HajjAND Mostafa Menessythree students from the American University in Cairo, launched an e-commerce platform in Egypt. At the time, e-commerce was a booming industry, with only 2% of households in the country participating in it. One of the major reasons was the shortage of online payment methods.
“There was a gap between what banks were offering and the requirements of new business models from financial technology. No one was doing digital payments for e-commerce and digital startups,” Shawky said in Interview 2022.
Integrating the local banks’ payment gateway with the e-commerce platform was a pain, so Shawky and his friends launched Cry as a payment infrastructure for digital wallets in 2015 while still in college. What began as a small enterprise quickly grew into an omni-channel gateway offering over 50 payment methods, including wallets, cards, buy now, pay later (BNPL), and QR code payments, enabling over 350,000 merchants in five countries in the Middle East and North Africa to just accept online and offline payments.
To date, Paymob, which describes itself as a financial services enabler, has raised greater than $90 million to scale thus far, including a recently closed $22 million Series B round led by EBRD Venture Capital. This brings its total Series B funding to $72 million.
Cross-selling services for a growing seller base
When we last covered Paymob in 2022, the fintech was serving just over 100,000 local and international merchants, a number that had greater than tripled in two years after expanding from Egypt and Pakistan to Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Paymob’s initial $50 million Series B round in 2022, co-led by PayPal Ventures, which participated in the expansion round, spurred that expansion. During that point, the fintech also beefed up its product suite, CEO Shawky told TechCrunch. It launched an app for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and introduced payment methods like embedded checkout experiences and products like loans and advanced settlements.
“We help merchants accept, pay, manage and grow, those are the four divisions we have. Acceptance is the engine and the core business, and we sell everything around that,” Shawky explains. “Once merchants are onboarded, we help them accept digital transactions, and then step by step we help with payments, provide working capital and give them the tools to better manage their finances and their business.”
Paymob became profitable for the primary time in Egypt in the second quarter of this 12 months, where its revenue has increased six-fold since mid-2022. It stays unprofitable elsewhere.
Increasing the variety of merchants and increasing average revenue per merchant by cross-selling additional services has been a giant a part of the startup’s success. For example, if a Paymob customer only has a POS terminal that accepts cards, that only accounts for 10-15% of their business. By offering a collection of products through partnerships with Shopify and Tabby, Paymob’s margins have improved significantly. Doing this at scale, digitally, and without the necessity for an enormous sales force has likely fueled the startup’s effective growth (Paymob has just over 1,000 employees).
“What’s most gratifying for us is that we’ve been able to grow profitably, because over the last two years, a lot of people have said we have to stop growing to be profitable or to preserve our runway,” Shawky noted. “But we’ve shown that if you build a fundamentally sound business and you really address customer needs, you can scale quickly and still be profitable.”
Rapid adoption of online payments in the UAE
Indeed, in Egypt and the Gulf countries there’s a dynamic growth in the recognition of digital payments.
In Egypt, 88% of consumers have used not less than one recent payment method in the past 12 months, and 85% of SMEs recognize that accepting multi-channel digital payments is vital to their growth, in response to Mastercard. Meanwhile, in the United Arab Emirates, demand for digital payment methods is more pronounced, with around 77% adoption nationwide.
Based on conversations with founders, it’s clear that despite such strong demand, the market stays underserved. As such, fintech firms which have expanded into the UAE, reminiscent of Paymob and native players like Ziina, which we wrote about last week, are racing to fill the gap by offering tailored solutions to half 1,000,000 merchants, capitalizing on the country’s growing appetite for digital payments.
As an illustration of this explosion in demand, Paymob only offers a web based payment acceptance product in the UAE, yet in just 14 months, its transaction volume in the UAE has grown to the dimensions of Egypt’s entire business, which took five years to construct. Reasons for this rapid growth in the Middle Eastern country include higher purchasing power, currency strength, and a greater share of digital wallets versus money.
Nevertheless, Egypt stays its largest market. Shawky is confident that a collection of fintech products geared toward promoting a cashless society, combined with efforts by the federal government and the central bank, will help Egypt achieve the identical level of digital payments adoption seen in the UAE.
“Issuance and acceptance need to go hand in hand for Egypt’s economy to reach this turning point. The central bank is putting a lot of effort and investment into the country’s digital infrastructure,” the CEO noted. “We are seeing the results. Our business has grown six-fold in two years and four months; yes, we have increased our merchant base, but it is also because these merchants are processing more digital volumes.”
Paymob reported $5 billion in total payments in 2020 and facilitated greater than 120 million transactions that 12 months. However, the present numbers for each metrics remain unclear because the fintech has not disclosed updated numbers.
In addition to PayPal Ventures, the fintech’s Series B funding round included Endeavor Catalyst, in addition to existing investors: British International Investment (BII), FMO, A15, Nclude, and Helios Digital Ventures (HDV).
Technology
Tensor9 helps suppliers implement software in any environment using digital twins
Enterprises must access latest software and artificial intelligence tools, but they’ll not risk sending their sensitive data to external software suppliers as a service (SAAS). Tensor9 He tries to help software firms to get more corporate customers, helping them implement the software directly in the client’s technological stack.
TENSOR9 transforms the software supplier code into the format needed to implement their client in the technological environment. Tensor9 then creates a digital twin of implemented software or a miniaturized infrastructure model of implemented software, so TENSOR9 customers can monitor how the software works in their customer environment. TENSOR9 will help firms to be placed in any premise, from the cloud to a bare server.
Michael Ten-POW, co-founder and general director of TENSOR9, told Techcrunch that the pliability to tendsor9 to send software to any assumption and using digital double technology in order to help in distant monitoring, helps to face out from other firms, comparable to Octopus implementation or non, which also help firms implement software in the client’s environment.
“You can’t just throw the wall software, or it is very difficult to throw the wall software and know what is happening, be able to find problems, debrieve them, fix them,” said Ten-POW (in the photo above, on the left). “They see how it works, they can debate it, can log in and understand what problems are and fix them.”
He said that time is suitable for Tensor9 technology on account of the wind from the creation of AI. Companies and financial institutions wish to simply accept AI technology, but they’ll not risk sending their data to third parties.
“Enterprise search seller can succeed, say, JP Morgan and say:” Hey, I’d love access to your entire six data parabetts to construct an intelligent search layer in order that your internal employees can confer with the company’s given company, “it is not possible to work,” said this-POW.
Ten-Pow, a former engineer in AWS, said he had a “long, quite winding path” to run the tensor9. He came up with the company’s idea, working on one other potential concept that failed. He spent some time, wondering if he would discover an answer to make it easier for software suppliers to accumulate a SOC 2 certificate, a frame compliance frame to help them unlock customers who required their suppliers.
Although it failed, he discovered from clients’ connections that what firms really wanted was software to act in their very own technological environment. But many programming firms, especially startups, shouldn’t have any resources to provide a specially to order for each company customer.
This sentiment became the premise of Tensor9, which Ten-POW began in 2024. Later this 12 months he brought two of his former colleagues, Matthew Michie and Matthew Shanker, as co-founders.
The company found early grip with AI. Since then, they began to expand to work in other industries, including: attempting to get your hands on enterprises, corporate databases and data management. The company currently cooperates with AI, including: 11x, REELL AI and DYNA AI.
TENSOR9 BootstrePPRE for the first 12 months, and recently raised a round of $ 4 million, led by Wing VC with the participation of UP Ventures levels, Devang Sachdev with the Ventures model, Nvangels, Angelic group of former employees of NVIDIA and other Investors of Angels. This POW said that the involvement of investors with this idea was not too difficult, for the rationale that VC they talked to see how their portfolio firms struggle with this exact problem. Tensor9 simply needed to steer investors that they were an appropriate team for work.
“We have a simple model, but there are many complexities under the covers, which makes it happen, difficult technical challenges that we solved to make it happen,” said Ten-Pow. “I think it was one of the things that helped us convince investors to invest in us.”
The company plans to utilize funds for employment and construct one other generation of its technology in order that it could cooperate with clients in larger vertical number.
“There was evolution from (on the premise) to the cloud and we think that this idea of the software lives where it must and works where it must, is the next step, which is a kind of synthesis of previous local and cloud ideas,” Ten-POW said.
(Tagstranslate) artificial intelligence
Technology
Kai Cenat teases his University of Streamer, but some influentially warn of the defect in creating content
Twitch Megastar Kai Cenat confirmed that his once historical “Streamer University” is officially starting, a number of months after the first raising of the concept during the live broadcast of 2025. While the idea already generates noise amongst aspiring creators who’re comfortable to equalize their content of content, some are concerned about the fee for the full -time lifestyle.
According to the price trailer announcing his Streamer University contained a sentence At Hogwarts, a university, which is the scenery of a preferred film and film franchise. In the film, Cenat writes letters to potential streamers, informing them about their selection to the university.
Welcome To Streamer University
Enroll Now! pic.twitter.com/6vU1nBsW9E— AMP KAI (@KaiCenat) May 6, 2025
“I am excited that I can introduce you to the most sincere welcome at the first class of Streamer University,” said Cenat. “Here you will find a school where chaos is encouraged and the content is a king … I can’t wait to see you all in the campus for the first semester.”
The original Cenat idea consisted of renting a brick university and mortar to rearrange his classes, but details about these specific logistics, the same to location, dates or exchange materials have not yet been announced; But earlier, he raised the concept that other content creators, the same to Mrbeast or Mark Rober, helping to point free university classes.
The Cenata website, which he created for potential content creators, says that “streamers of all environments” can learn “both unrealized, upcoming and recognized creators.”
However, Mrbeast, which didn’t confirm his commitment, recently warned about the drawback of creating content during the February interview about Steven Bartlett’s podcast.
“If my mental health were a priority, I would not be as successful as I did,” said Bartlett during the discussion.
According to Shira Lazar, co -founder of Creatorcare, a newly launched Soffee service, which goals to help the creators of content in matters of mental health specific to their occupation, often content creators Fight fear, Depression and disordered food, in addition to income fluctuations.
“() Fear of the disappearance of burning fuels in a system, which constantly requires feeding channels. I am like Joan Rivers; I will create until I die, so I want to make sure that I can develop,” said Lazar in an interview.
Amy Kelly, a co -founder of audit health therapy and a licensed family therapist, whose clients consist of many content creators, said The Outlet said that the influencers industry itself just just won’t be built to take care of the creators who feed her.
“Social media is not only a platform – it’s a recruiter,” she said, as she noticed, that 57% of teenagers gene with in the USA He said they’d turn into influential If he receives a likelihood. “We cultivate teenagers in a digital working force with proven threats to mental health – a modern equivalent of sending children to a coal mine without protective equipment.”
As Lazar said in an interview: “The creator’s economy exploded, but the support systems did not meet. Because more gene from this space is professionally entering, we must treat it like a real workplace. This means sustainable systems not only for monetization, but also for mental health.”
)
Technology
10 gadgets that a mother will love about technology
Mama list can handle it.
Mother’s Day is a great time to rejoice mothers and amazing women who raised us. However, day-to-day is a great day to honor them, because mothers are really a gift that he gives.
If your mother is a technical type that on a regular basis seems to know about essentially essentially essentially essentially essentially essentially essentially essentially probably probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially probably essentially probably probably probably probably probably probably essentially probably essentially probably essentially probably essentially essentially probably probably probably probably probably probably essentially essentially essentially probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably probably essentially probably probably essentially essentially probably essentially probably probably probably essentially probably probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably essentially probably probably essentially essentially probably probably probably probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably probably essentially essentially essentially essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably probably probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably probably probably probably essentially probably essentially probably essentially essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably essentially probably probably probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably essentially probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably essentially probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially essentially essentially probably essentially essentially probably essentially probably essentially essentially probably probably essentially probably probably probably probably essentially essentially probably probably probably probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially essentially essentially probably essentially essentially probably essentially probably probably essentially probably probably probably essentially essentially probably essentially probably probably probably essentially probably probably probably essentially probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially essentially probably probably probably essentially probably probably probably probably essentially probably probably probably probably essentially essentially probably essentially essentially essentially essentially probably the most recent gadget and downloads latest applications or updates her home to an intelligent home that practically is run, here is a list of gadgets that you will offer you the likelihood to develop. From those fanciful Wellness to kitchen gadgets, which will move her cooking game to a higher level, these types will bring you the crown of a “favorite child” on Mother’s Day or day-to-day.
Ember cup 2
Watch on TikTok
Smart MUG 2 Ember Tempeime Control is number of wonderful – this keeps drinks at a great temperature For about an hour and a half. While the cup is a bit thrown out for USD 149.95, it’s truthfully price it for mothers who’re still in motion. If you are trying to pay money for a gift that you truly use, you will offer you the likelihood to download one among the company’s sites. It is a game that changes for tea or coffee lovers.
Roomba + 405 Combo Robot
Robot Combo Roomba Plus 405 with Dock AutoWash costs $ 599. This genius gadget not only vacuum and mops, but actually creates a map of his home and empties/cleans after ending.
Aura Carver Digital Photo Frame
The digital photo frame Aura Carver lasts for 149 USD and, as a thoughtful gift for mom, allows her to see useful family moments in a sublime, stylish frame without a mess of traditional albums or web platforms. What makes it unique is a way that everyone can remotely add photos through the applying, so the mother’s collection stays updated about latest memories. He can control how briskly slide plays or simply move.
TheRagun Mini
The latest TheRagun Mini (third generation) costs 179 USD and is such a thoughtful gift for mom. It provides serious muscle relief that he can throw straight into the purse. This is definitely a pocket tool He deals with stubborn painIt melts tension and helps her decompressed after a long day. This little gem has it back.
Tile Pro
https://www.tiktok.com/@_mettaz_/video/7433622090697231662 ?_R=1&_T=ZT-8WGNGAV95TTT
Tile Tile Pro Bluetooth costs 99 USD, and likewise you will offer you the likelihood to catch one on the Life360 website. Why is it such a perfect gift for mom? Well, that is a lifeguard when he’s Searching for her keys or lost her purse or cannot find these other needed items. Mom can simply use her phone to trace them in a few seconds.
Smart Garden 9 Pro
https://www.tiktok.com/@jesisdabest08/video/69537423724087045 ?_R=1&_T=ZT-8WGNOX1XZAQ
Smart Garden 9 Pro costs $ 299.95 and is sweet for mothers who’re excited about cooking with fresh herbs or who Enjoy gardening But I hate seasonal restrictions. This gadget does almost everything-in height, it robotically provides amongst the varied finest possible quantity of sunshine with these prolons and provides adequate nutrients to the roots. Lighting functions controlled by the applying allow it to manage the schedule with none confusion. She will be excited when she will offer you the likelihood to grow herbs all yr round, even contained contained throughout the midst of winter! Never more sad, withered herbs of a grocery store or a broken heart of gardening when frost strikes.
Apple Watch Series 10
https://www.tiktok.com/@jarendivinity/video/745877349853936430 ?_R=1&_T=ZT-8WGNWGOQJBO
I just noticed Apple Watch Series 10 for $ 399. This is sweet for Have bookmarks on health informationMessage handling without searching the phone and exposing it to remain energetic. It works well for busy mothers who care about their well -being, but they don’t on a regular basis find time.
Apple Airpods 4
Airpods 4 could possibly be amongst the varied finest possible gift for Mother’s Day. Mom would love their amazing sound quality and the cancellation of the noise that allows her Use chaos when he has to. They work like magic also with all its Apple devices in retail for $ 179. Regardless of whether he gets into your favorite melodies, receives connections or wander off in podcasts, these small ear inserts are delivered. Oh, and likewise you will offer you the likelihood so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as in order so as to add a personal accent, engraving it together together along together along along together together along along along together along along along together along together together together along along along along together along together along along along along together together together along along together together together together together together together along along along together along along together together together together together together along along together along along together together along together together together along along together together together together along along together together together along along together together along together along along together together together along along along together along along along along along together along together along along together along together along along along along together along together together along along along together together along along along together along together together along along along together together along along together together together together along along together together along along together together along together together together along along along along along together along together together together together along along together along along together together along along along together together along together together along together together together along together along along along along together along together together together together along together together together together together together along along along along along together together along together together along along together along along along along along together along along along together along together together along along along together together along along together together together together together along with her name or sweet message.
Philips Hue Smart Light Starter Set
https://www.tiktok.com/@rustandtrust/video/7479953867074047278 ?_R=1&_T=ZT-8WGO3NCA0P0
Check the Philips Hue Smart Light starter kit for mom, starting from 199 USD. It is sweet for mothers who deserve a little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little little bit of magic of their day-to-day lives. She would love the potential of adjusting the mood by moving light colors Transform the atmosphere of each room. The voice control function allows mom to manage the lighting without getting up from a comfortable place. In addition, there’s a Bluetooth control directly from mobile devices. Trust me, nothing says “I appreciate you”, very very comparable to the gift of atmosphere and convenience, in a single.
Levoit Core 600s Smart Air Ofurifier
Smart Air Purifier Levoit Core 600s currently costs USD 299 at levoit.com. Perfect for a mother who deserves easy respiratory. It changes games for mothers coping with allergies Or who’s special to handle up your personal home in health. It is admittedly cool that it could thoroughly be controlled using application or voice commands.
-
Press Release1 year ago
U.S.-Africa Chamber of Commerce Appoints Robert Alexander of 360WiseMedia as Board Director
-
Press Release1 year ago
CEO of 360WiSE Launches Mentorship Program in Overtown Miami FL
-
Business and Finance11 months ago
The Importance of Owning Your Distribution Media Platform
-
Business and Finance1 year ago
360Wise Media and McDonald’s NY Tri-State Owner Operators Celebrate Success of “Faces of Black History” Campaign with Over 2 Million Event Visits
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Another lawsuit accuses Google of bias against Black minority employees
-
Theater1 year ago
Telling the story of the Apollo Theater
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Henrietta Lacks’ family members reach an agreement after her cells undergo advanced medical tests
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
The families of George Floyd and Daunte Wright hold an emotional press conference in Minneapolis
-
Theater1 year ago
Applications open for the 2020-2021 Soul Producing National Black Theater residency – Black Theater Matters
-
Theater11 months ago
Cultural icon Apollo Theater sets new goals on the occasion of its 85th anniversary