Paymob announced that it has raised $35 million in its current Pre-Series C funding round. This increases the company's total raised capital to over $125 million. New investors include Mubadala Investment Company and EBRD, with participation from British International Investment, Global Ventures, and DPI Ventures.
The capital raised will be used to expand Paymob's operations in the Middle East and North Africa markets. The company plans to scale up digital payment acceptance in existing markets and develop new products specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.
Another priority will be supporting developing agency commerce applications. Currently, Paymob operates in Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, serving over 390,000 merchants. The company continues to focus on its strengths: payment acceptance and creating financial tools tailored for merchants.
Paymob offers businesses an omnichannel payment platform that allows them to accept both online and offline payments through a single technological layer. The platform processes over 60 payment methods, integrating payment gateways, point-of-sale terminals, SoftPOS, and payment links. Furthermore, it enables the provision and sale of subscriptions and installments, as well as receiving and managing mass payouts with real-time reporting setup. Paymob also utilizes integrated fraud detection and is PCI DSS certified, providing merchants with a unified infrastructure for managing various payment channels.
Paymob's model solves the problem of payment market fragmentation in the MENA region, as sellers often require multiple integrations to support local payment options. Paymob consolidates these methods through a single integration, reducing the technical and operational burden of managing multiple channels.
Paymob's most significant growth recently has been observed in the Gulf countries. Over the last 18 months, its consolidated revenue has tripled, and revenue from GCC countries has grown sevenfold over the same period. This region now accounts for nearly half of Paymob's total revenue.
The company has also expanded its merchant base in the Gulf markets after obtaining a retail payment services license from the UAE. This license was issued by the Central Bank of the UAE in January 2025. Following this, Paymob continued to build its presence in the Gulf region. The latest funding was secured amid a more selective investment climate in MENA, despite pressure on fintech investments across the region.
Paymob was founded in 2015 by Alian El Hajem, Islam Shawki, and Mostafa El Menassy. Islam Shawki serves as the Chief Executive Officer. The founders created Paymob based on the need to simplify digital payment acceptance. Since then, the company has entered four MENA markets.
The new funding will support product development for SMEs and the creation of infrastructure for agency commerce. Agency commerce involves using software agents to complete transactions on behalf of users, which requires secure and efficient support for these operations from the payment infrastructure. Paymob is positioning its platform for this new market, using its existing payment infrastructure as a foundation for broader seller services. The attracted capital will provide additional resources for regional expansion and product development.
This funding strengthens Paymob's position, transforming it from an Egyptian fintech project into a pan-African MENA payment platform. The company believes that the new programs will allow sellers to process payments across a wider range of channels while increasing access to digital financial services.
Factory has successfully raised $200 million in a new funding round, achieving a valuation of $5 billion. Investors in this round include Blackstone, Khosla Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. Insight Partners, Evantic Capital, and Sound Ventures also participated.
Factory was founded in 2023 by Matan Greenberg and Eno Reyes. Other investors included NEA, Mantis VC, and Clearlake. The round also attracted angel investors, including Nico Rosberg, Brad Gerstner, and Mark Benioff.
The new funding increases the company's total capital raised to over $400 million. This represents significant growth compared to the $1.5 billion valuation set in April. Thus, in five months, Factory's valuation has more than tripled; previously, the company had raised $150 million at that same valuation.
The latest capital raise reflects growing enterprise demand for autonomous software development tools. The San Francisco-based company aims to increase the degree of autonomy in software development. Its platform enables large enterprises to create, test, and maintain software using artificial intelligence agents throughout the entire development lifecycle.
Factory differs from platforms focused on individual coding agents because it provides enterprises with a unified system for managing software development. The platform allows companies to control the training process of their 'software factory,' as well as manage models and system deployment. Factory can operate through its managed cloud infrastructure, or clients can deploy it on-premises or in fully isolated environments, giving enterprises greater control over AI-driven development.
The company reports that its platform is used by hundreds of thousands of developers. Factory's clients include Nvidia, Blackstone, Royal Bank of Canada, Palo Alto Networks, and Adobe. This growing client portfolio underscores the increased interest from the corporate sector in AI-powered software development.
Enterprises are increasingly using AI to boost engineering productivity. Factory believes that companies are moving from using individual coding assistants to building broader software factories around autonomous systems. Matan Greenberg noted: 'Major enterprises worldwide are transitioning from individual coding agents to software factories,' adding that clients confirm the potential for rearchitecting software development systems, although the company is still in the early stages of this transition.
Factory's strategy is focused on creating autonomous software factories that operate continuously under human supervision. Enterprises can regulate measurable outcomes while AI performs development tasks. The company competes in the rapidly growing AI coding market. Factory plans to use the new capital to support further growth, focusing particularly on platform expansion and adoption within the corporate sector.
Buildots has successfully raised $130 million to expand its artificial intelligence-based construction intelligence platform. The funding was led by O.G. Venture Partners, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Mohari Ventures, Human Capital, and Qumra Capital. The round also attracted investments from Avigdor Willenz, Viola Growth, and Poalim Equity.
Thanks to this new round, Buildots' total funding has reached $297 million. The company demonstrates stable growth, maintaining a three-year period of tripling annual revenue. Buildots serves the global construction industry, which is valued at approximately $16 trillion.
Demand for solutions is growing in the data center, manufacturing, and energy infrastructure sectors. These projects are characterized by tighter deadlines and increased operational complexity, requiring construction managers to have better visibility into work progress.
Buildots creates a digital feedback loop between real construction sites and digital project plans. The company's proprietary AI development is trained on eight years of construction data, and its models are based on real-world objects. Computer vision technology converts video footage from sites into a digital copy of each project. The platform then integrates this visual information with schedules and 3D models, allowing Buildots to classify hundreds of different types of construction activities and provide continuously updated project progress information.
This approach replaces the need for disparate reports and manual checks, offering project teams a single source of operational information. Over one hundred large companies already use the Buildots platform, including Intel, Digital Realty, JE Dunn, and Mortenson.
The global expansion of AI infrastructure is stimulating new demand for construction intelligence. Data centers require significant investment and precise execution; therefore, delays can lead to serious financial losses for project owners. Buildots helps clients detect issues during construction early on, giving teams more time to address potential setbacks. The platform also facilitates more efficient allocation of labor and capital. Portfolio-level intelligence allows managers to compare risks across multiple projects.
The company notes that multi-year agreements worth seven figures are increasingly being signed, reflecting growing demand from large construction programs. During the same period, Buildots' staff has significantly increased, doubling over the last eighteen months. The company currently has about 400 employees, with around 260 working in Israel. Furthermore, annual recurring revenue has also tripled during this period, supported by growth in data center and infrastructure construction.
In light of the new funding, Buildots plans expansion in three areas. The company intends to reach more large construction portfolios in North America and Europe, as well as deepen its coverage across all stages of the construction lifecycle—from bidding to handover. Additionally, Buildots aims to evolve towards business-level intelligence to help managers manage construction portfolios more systematically, making construction operations more measurable and predictable.
Investors highlighted Buildots' significant advantage based on extensive construction data. The company was founded by Talpiot program graduates from Israel: Roy Danon, Aviv Leibovich, and Yakir Sudri. This has allowed the company to secure a strong position in construction monitoring. Its technology now supports major contractors and owners worldwide. The new funding will provide Buildots with additional capital to accelerate this expansion, as demand for the platform is expected to grow amid the development of AI infrastructure construction. Buildots aims to become the core operating system for large construction organizations. Other clients include Bouygues, HOCHTIEF, and STO Building Group. The platform is suitable for projects of any scale, from individual sites to entire portfolios.
Piston, a technology startup headquartered in the US with an engineering center in Kolkata, has successfully raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by FPV Ventures, with participation from existing investors Spark Capital and Pear VC.
Piston was founded by Vikram Sekhon and Shivam Shah. It has developed a cashless payment network that connects commercial fleets with gas stations and stores. This system allows fleet owners to track fuel expenses in real time, eliminating the need to issue or manage physical cards.
For merchants, this platform provides direct access to demand for commercial fuel, reduces transaction operational costs, and offers a chance to earn revenue from store purchases associated with repeat visits by fleets.
According to the announcement, the raised funds will be used to expand the payment network, develop products, and hire senior executives in key business areas. Over the next eighteen months, the company plans to achieve coverage across all US regions. Furthermore, as part of its expansion, Piston intends to move beyond fuel payments into broader logistics payment infrastructure.
Co-founder and CEO of Piston, Vikram Sekhon, noted that fuel fraud in fleets is a problem of physical cards masquerading as a detection issue. He emphasized that they have eliminated the card and created a network that authorizes every purchase for a specific driver and vehicle directly at the point of sale. This round will allow them to scale this infrastructure until no commercial driver doubts whether a station accepts payments through Piston.
Piston reported that its presence in India grew in parallel with its expansion in the US. The Kolkata office, launched in April 2023 with a team of five people, has now grown into a center with over 25 employees, playing a central role in creating and scaling the startup's technology infrastructure.
The company stated that its engineering team in Kolkata will continue to play a key role in the product and technology roadmap as the payment network scales nationally. The startup also reported that the volume of payments in its network has increased eightfold compared to the previous year, while the merchant network has grown 40fold, and customer retention remains at 98%. Currently, Piston's technology is implemented at over 2,000 stations across 48 states.
