Paymob, the leading omnichannel payments gateway and financial technology enabler in the MENAP region, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with COLABS, Pakistan’s largest collaborative workspace, to jointly empower young entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses.
Paymob is the leading financial services enabler delivering the latest technologies to customers in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) region. The omnichannel platform empowers SME merchants to manage and scale their businesses by giving them access to financial services not readily available in emerging markets.
Headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, Paymob is the largest payments facilitator in North Africa and employs 1100 team members across MENAP. The company launched operations in Pakistan in 2021. Paymob was founded in 2015 by Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj, and Mostafa Menessy.
COLABS is Pakistan’s fastest growing flexible workspace, thoughtfully designed to enable people and businesses to grow, with a vision to redefine the future of work in Pakistan. The COLABS community today has 1200+ members across multiple facilities in Pakistan. With a community consisting of a mix of freelancers, start-ups, SMEs and MNCs, COLABS today has a network of 100+ ecosystem partners across universities, VC funds, corporates, government and industry leaders.
The collaboration aims to equip aspiring start-ups with customised programmes and access to relevant material from co-branded workshops, as well as direct access to payment methods through Paymob’s gateway and POS terminals.
Commenting on the partnership, Fawad Abdul Kader, Paymob Country Head in Pakistan said, “This collaboration with COLABS will create a synergy to help digitise the payment needs of merchants. I believe both parties will influence the payment landscape for up-and-coming start-ups in Pakistan.”
Pakistan boasts of a population of over 220 million of which 60 percent comprises of individuals between the ages of 15 to 24. While the majority of this bracket remains unemployed due to a dearth of job opportunities, the adoption of the latest technologies has led to the growth of a technology-based entrepreneurial culture in the country. Consequently, the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) pre-emptively launched Pakistan’s first incubator (Plan9) in August 2012 which has now expanded its incubation programmes across the country.
“We are very excited to partner with Paymob and hope to facilitate the COLABS community by creating avenues for entrepreneurs to scale and strengthen their business models through in-depth workshops and networking sessions at our flagship in Lahore,” stated Omar Shah, co-founder and CEO of COLABS.
Paymob’s omni-channel payment infrastructure enables SMEs to accept digital payments online and in-store via its gateway, POS, and Paymob app product, as well as giving them better access to financial services. In Egypt, Paymob’s gateway offers the largest number of payment methods in the market with over thirty Payment methods. In addition to conventional bank cards, Paymob merchants can accept local schemes, mobile wallets, bank easy-payment plans, and Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL) options, all of which serve to drive an increased volume of transactions and revenue.
Through this diverse and interconnected ecosystem, along with its entrepreneurial initiative, COGROW, COLABS enables local and international companies to enter, start-up and accelerate growth in the Pakistani market. Till date, they have hosted over 250+ events and over 200,000 visitors since inception to support the Pakistani ecosystem.
