Egypt-based payment fintech, Paymob, has announced successfully raising an additional $22 million in a Series B extension, bringing its total Series B funding to $72 million which will see it pursue its growth strategy at home and in the wider MENA region.

The extension round was led by EBRD Venture Capital with participation from Endeavor Catalyst while existing investors PayPal Ventures, BII, FMO, A15, Nclude and Helios Digital Ventures also participated in the round.

Co-founder and CEO of the Paymob, Islam Shawky, who made the announcement, said the extension round follows Paymob’s continued profitability in its core market of Egypt, having recorded 6x revenue growth since the initial Series B funding in Q2 2022.

“We are very excited by our strong prospects in Egypt – where we hold a market-leading position – and the significant traction experienced in the UAE since launching operations there.

“This funding will help Paymob to fully capitalize on the momentum in our established markets, as we accelerate our GCC rollout. We remain committed to creating a cutting-edge infrastructure enabling SMEs across the region to thrive in the digital economy and are proud of our continued impact,” Shawky said.

The payment platform which was founded in 2015 by Shawky, Alain El Hajj and Mostafa Menessy, is an infrastructure technology enabler providing payment solutions to empower digital financial service providers through mobile wallet technology.

According to its profile on its website, the fintech’s omnichannel gateway offers more than 50 payment solutions and empowers close to 350,000 merchants with access to innovative financial services. It has expanded to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Nigeria has been placed in Tier 3 in the 2024 Global Cybersecurity Index by the International Telecommunication Union. The current GCI 2024 ranked countries into five tiers, with Tier 1 having the highest cybersecurity commitment across legal, technological, organisational, capacity-building, and cooperative criteria.

Tier 3 country Nigeria is one of 105 that have improved digital infrastructure but are still developing cybersecurity frameworks.

Nigeria was rated as “establishing” its cybersecurity efforts, demonstrating growth in digital services and connections but underlining the need for more development to incorporate cybersecurity measures properly.

The research noted that Nigeria had improved its cybersecurity despite such limitations. It also noted a “cyber capacity gap” in several nations, including Nigeria, due to skills, staffing, and budget issues.

“Building trust in the digital world is paramount,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “The progress seen in the Global Cybersecurity Index is a sign that we must continue to focus efforts to ensure that everyone, everywhere, can safely and securely manage cyber threats in today’s increasingly complex digital landscape.”

The research also showed that the world’s least developed countries were making progress, but they required support to accelerate.

GCI 2024 statistics showed that the typical LDC had the same cybersecurity status as many non-LDC developing countries in 2021.

ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Cosmas Zavazava said, “The Global Cybersecurity Index 2024 shows significant improvements by countries that are implementing essential legal measures, plans, capacity-building initiatives, and cooperation frameworks, especially in strengthening incident response capabilities.

“ITU’s cybersecurity projects and programs are supporting those national efforts to more effectively manage cyberthreats, and I hope that the progress demonstrated by this latest index encourages countries to do more in developing secure and trustworthy digital systems and networks.”