Startups across the Middle East and North Africa maintained fundraising and expansion momentum last week despite regional headwinds tied to the conflict involving Iran. Activity included Paymob ’s $35 million pre-Series C round co-led by Mubadala Investment Co. and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, TalMal closing an undisclosed pre-seed round to push into commercial expansion in Saudi Arabia, AREP securing pre-seed backing from Golden Assets Investment for domestic growth, and Huspy ’s entry into Italy through the acquisition of Integra Finance as part of an $86 million investment plan for the market. In August, 27 MENA startups raised a combined $375 million, underscoring sustained investor interest amid uncertainty. “Paymob’s expansion in the UAE aligns closely with our ambition under our MENA Venture Capital Fund to support companies that strengthen the country’s digital economy and reinforce its position as a leading regional fintech hub,” said Islam Shawky , co-founder and CEO of Paymob. “With a scalable payments platform and strong growth potential across the GCC, Paymob is well positioned to support merchants, advance financial inclusion and contribute to economic diversification.” Context and deal details Paymob’s $35 million injection will be used to scale its core digital payments acceptance business across the MENA region and to introduce products aimed at SME merchants and agentic commerce. The round was co-led by Mubadala and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with participation from British International Investment, Global Ventures and DPI Ventures. Paymob operates an omnichannel payments platform that supports more than 60 payment methods via a single integration and serves over 390,000 merchants across Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Saudi fintech TalMal, founded in 2023 by Thamer Faisal Al-Qu’ayshish , closed an undisclosed pre-seed round with investment from MM Partners . The company is developing a sa…