Latest news with #Payrails
Arab News
14-06-2025
- Business
- Arab News
MENA funding rounds, expansions continue
RIYADH: The Middle East and North Africa witnessed several funding rounds for startups in the past week, with firms across multiple industries eyeing geographical expansion. The strong momentum in funding follows the trend observed in May, when startups throughout the region secured $289 million across 44 deals, marking a 25 percent rise from April and a 2 percent increase year on year. In the past week, most of the fundraising rounds happened in the technological sector, an indication of the region's evolving digital landscape. Payrails raises $32 million Berlin-based payment software company Payrails has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round led by HV Capital's Growth Fund, with strong participation from existing investors EQT Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding raised to over $52.8 million. In a press statement, the company said that the fresh funding is expected to support the company's product innovation, product roadmap expansion, and commercial growth across Europe and the MENA region. 'We are grateful for the trust our customers and investors have placed in us. Their continued support fuels our vision of empowering enterprises with an all-in-one platform to manage every aspect of payments, unlocking new levels of performance and innovation while driving down complexity and costs,' said Orkhan Abdullayev, co-founder and CEO of Payrails. 'With this funding, we are doubling down on product development to expand our multi-product platform across the entire payment lifecycle. Our payment operating system is setting a new industry standard for how enterprises manage and optimize payments,' he added. With the fresh capital, Payrails will also expand its all-in-one platform with new products across the payment lifecycle, from acceptance to payouts. Qanooni raises $2m to transform workflows UAE-based legal startup Qanooni has raised $2 million in a pre-seeding funding round led by Village Global, Salica Investments, TA Ventures, and several angel investors. With the new financial assistance, the company seeks to support its team expansion and operations in the UAE and the UK. Through the funding, Qanooni also aims to further modernize legal operations by introducing a range of new tools, including end-to-end agentic workflows and deeper platform customization. Founded by Anuscha Iqbal, Ziyaad Ahmed, and Karim Shiyab, the company integrates directly into the software that lawyers mainly use during work, eliminating the friction of switching platforms or adopting new workflows. The tools offered by Qanooni help law companies draft and produce documents faster and more accurately, while also making use of generative artificial intelligence that mimics a lawyer's tone and writing style, which complies with international standards. Hydrogen Utopia raises $339,000 UK-based Hydrogen Utopia raised $339,000 to expand its waste-to-hydrogen technology in the MENA region. Using the fund, the company plans to buy 10 exclusive licenses that give it the right to use InEnTec's waste-to-hydrogen technology, which will help the firm carry out its operations in the region. Founded by Aleksandra Binkowska, the company specializes in transforming non-recyclable mixed waste plastic into hydrogen and other emission-free energy sources. Salus Cloud raises $3.7m in expansion push Salus Cloud, an African-based AI-native DevOps platform, raised $3.7 million in seed funding to scale its operations across the Middle East and Africa. The fund round was led by Atlantica Ventures and P1 Ventures, while it also witnessed the participation of Idris Bello of Lofty Inc. Capital and angel investor Timothy Chen of Essence VC. Through the funding, the company aims to address a crucial issue in the world of technology, including access to secure, automated software deployment tools. With the newly acquired financial assistance, Salus also plans to support its customer base growth across Africa, the Middle East, and underserved tech ecosystems, as well as build partnerships with developer communities and tech hubs. VenueX raises $1.2 million VenueX, an Istanbul-based AI startup, closed a $1.2 million bridge investment round, led by Singapore-based Orbit Startups. The investment is expected to support the company's aim to expand its operations to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. VenueX is also planning to expand its presence in Dubai and Riyadh with new offices, while also creating a sales team in both cities. Founded in 2022, VenueX enables retail brands to manage their digital advertising on all platforms through a unified interface. Orange Middle East and Africa partners with risingSUD Multi-service operator Orange Middle East and Africa has signed a strategic partnership agreement with risingSUD to support the establishment and growth of African start-ups in the Orange Digital Center network in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, in the south of France. RisingSUD is the economic development agency in charge of attracting projects, investment, and talent to the area. According to a press statement, the three-year partnership aims to bring together innovation ecosystems in Africa, the Middle East, and the South of France. With this partnership, OMEA strengthens its support for the internationalization of start-ups from Africa and the Middle East and reaffirms its commitment to developing the continent's entrepreneurial ecosystems. The partnership will also allow more start-ups from MEA to benefit from risingSUD's expertise, ranging from project development to access to financing and networking with international partners. 'By facilitating their establishment and acceleration in France, particularly in the south region, we are giving young African companies the means to accelerate their growth,' said Jerome Henique, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa. 'This partnership opens up new economic opportunities and constitutes a real springboard for the development of businesses on both sides of the Mediterranean,' said Bernard Kleynhoff, president of risingSUD and president of the Economic and Digital Development, Industry, Export, Attractiveness and Cybersecurity Commissions of the Sud Region.
Finextra
12-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Payrails raises $32 million
Berlin-based payment software company Payrails has raised $32 million in Series A funding 0 The round was led by HV Capital's Growth Fund, with strong participation from all existing investors EQT Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding raised to over $52.8 million. Founded by former executives from Stripe, Miro and Delivery Hero, Payrails offers a payment operating system purpose-built for enterprises with a modular architecture that includes payment orchestration, payouts, tokenization, unified analytics, automated reconciliation, and recently launched in-person payments. The tech stack gives enterprises full visibility and control of their payment operations and checkout experiences across geographies, channels, and verticals. In 2024, Payrails processed more than 1 million in daily operations, expanded into 30 new markets across Europe and Mena, and attracted enterprise customers across industries such as mobility, marketplaces and platforms, travel, e-commerce, financial services and subscription services. Brands supported include Puma, Vinted, Flix, InDrive, Just Eat Takeaway, and Careem. Orkhan Abdullayev, co-founder and CEO of Payrails says: 'With this funding, we're doubling down on product development to expand our multi-product platform across the entire payment lifecycle. Our payment operating system is setting a new industry standard for how enterprises manage and optimize payments, with more control, visibility and flexibility than ever before.' Following a partnership agreement struck with Mastercard earlier this year, Abdullayev says the fresh capital will be deployed to roll out new products and actively grow its commercial and product teams across Berlin, London, Paris, Dublin, Cairo and Dubai.
Zawya
12-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Payrails raises $32mln Series A to help global enterprises maximize payment performance
Payrails has found strong demand for its product, with rapid recurring revenue growth and well-known industry leaders like Puma, Vinted, Flix, and InDrive already using and trusting it. New funding will accelerate product development, product innovation, and commercial expansion across EMEA amid strong customer demand. Dubai & Berlin: Payrails, a global payment software company, today announced it has raised $32 million in Series A funding to further its mission of enabling enterprises to take control of their payment operations. The fresh funding will accelerate product innovation, product roadmap expansion and support commercial growth across EMEA to meet surging enterprise demand. The round was led by HV Capital's Growth Fund, with strong participation from all existing investors EQT Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding raised to over $52.8 million. Founded by former fintech leaders from Delivery Hero, Payrails' founding team brings deep experience building global, scalable financial infrastructure. With the continued backing of leading technology investors, Payrails is strengthening its position as a category-defining payment platform for large enterprises. Strong enterprise demand accelerates Payrails' growth across markets The funding, one of the largest Series A rounds for a fintech company in Europe this year, follows a period of exceptional growth. In 2024 alone, Payrails processed more than 1 million in daily operations, expanded into 30 new markets across Europe and MENA, and attracted enterprise customers across industries such as mobility, marketplaces and platforms, travel, e-commerce, financial services and subscription services. Payrails is trusted by leading global brands including Puma, Vinted, Flix, InDrive, Just Eat Takeaway, and Careem to boost performance, reduce operational complexity and costs, and enable faster innovation across their payment operations. Orkhan Abdullayev, Co-Founder and CEO of Payrails said: 'We're grateful for the trust our customers and investors have placed in us. Their continued support fuels our vision of empowering enterprises with an all-in-one platform to manage every aspect of payments, unlocking new levels of performance and innovation while driving down complexity and costs. 'With this funding, we're doubling down on product development to expand our multi-product platform across the entire payment lifecycle. Our payment operating system is setting a new industry standard for how enterprises manage and optimize payments, with more control, visibility and flexibility than ever before,'. Solving complexity in a growing market Enterprise payment operations are becoming increasingly complex and fragmented. Enterprises must manage local payment methods, coordinate multiple Payment Service Providers, sync with internal systems, and comply with evolving regulatory frameworks across multiple markets, while delivering a frictionless customer experience and maintaining cost efficiency. With the global payments market projected to exceed $1.7 trillion in transactions by 2025, payments are no longer a commodity. Scaling payment operations and efficiently managing money movements has become a critical growth lever for large enterprises. Yet rigid legacy systems or in-house built tools, that require deep domain expertise, significant investment and lengthy go-to-market timelines, limit agility and hinder innovation. Payrails addresses this with a payment operating system purpose-built for enterprises, allowing companies to orchestrate complex payment flows, optimize performance, and abstract the complexity of system integrations. Acting as a deeply integrated meta layer, Payrails spans the entire payment lifecycle with a modular architecture that includes payment orchestration, payouts, tokenization, unified analytics, automated reconciliation, and recently launched in-person payments, all powered by advanced data capabilities. With a growing catalogue of over 100 integrations, Payrails works seamlessly with payment service providers like Stripe, Adyen, fraud-prevention solutions like Forter, software solutions like SAP, Salesforce, Snowflake, and others. This gives enterprises full flexibility, visibility, and control of their payment operations and checkout experiences across geographies, channels, and verticals. Alexander Joel-Carbonell, partner at HV Capital said: 'Having worked closely with Orkhan and Emre for over eight years—starting from our shared time at Delivery Hero—I've consistently been impressed by their sharp strategic instincts and relentless execution. With Payrails, they've built a category-defining: an enterprise-grade, modular payment operating system that abstracts complexity, enhances performance, and enables rapid innovation. Their unwavering 24/7 customer focus and ability to deliver immediate impact is reflected in the caliber of their global enterprise clients and the speed at which they're scaling, all shown in their great SaaS KPIs and traction. When we benchmarked the landscape, Payrails clearly led the pack of solutions, solving real pain points with a powerful enterprise product. I am thrilled to continue to support Orkhan and Emre with HV Growth from the sidelines!' Kaushik Subramanian, partner at EQT Ventures said: 'Payrails is tackling one of the most complex challenges for global enterprises with its unified payment platform. The power lies in composability - by offering composable software blocks, from pay-ins to tokenization to reconciliation, Payrails gives companies the commercial flexibility and control that in-house or legacy systems can't. The team is world-class, with deep fintech and software experience, and their rapid traction with global brands speaks volumes. That is why we are doubling down on the team. We are excited about what is ahead.' David Haber, General Partner at a16z said:"As more companies go global from day one, the need for unified, scalable payments infrastructure has never been more urgent. Payrails is building the operating system for this world. We believe their modular approach, execution speed, and strong customer traction set them apart in a category overdue for transformation. We're excited to continue to support Payrails as they become foundational infrastructure for the next generation of global enterprises." Zeynep Yavuz, partner at General Catalyst said: 'As global commerce grows and payment flows become more complex, enterprises need a reliable platform built to operate across multiple processors. Our early conviction in Payrails was driven by an exceptional founding team with deep industry experience and a clear vision for simplifying payments while reducing costs. Today, some of the world's fastest-growing global enterprises trust Payrails to power their mission-critical payments—and are consistently delighted by the product's performance, flexibility, and reliability. We're proud to support them as they reshape the future of payments operations.' New funding will fuel product innovation and commercial expansion Earlier this year, Payrails entered a strategic partnership with Mastercard to accelerate digital transformation and unlock next-generation payment capabilities for large-scale enterprises. With the fresh capital, Payrails will expand its all-in-one platform with new products across the payment lifecycle, from acceptance to payouts. To support its continued growth, Payrails is actively growing its commercial and product teams across Berlin, London, Paris, Dublin, Cairo and Dubai, and has expanded its leadership team with senior hires: Edward Moore, Chief Revenue Officer (formerly Global Head of Sales at Stripe) Willian Carminato, Chief Technology Officer (formerly VP Engineering at Miro) Patrick Bellinghausen, VP Finance (formerly Senior Director at Delivery Hero) Press contact: Payrails@ About Payrails Payrails is a global payment software company helping leading enterprises to take control of their payment operations and maximize performance. Payrails' all-in-one platform spans the entire payment lifecycle with a modular architecture that includes payment orchestration, payouts, tokenization, unified analytics, automated reconciliation, and recently launched in-person payments, all powered by advanced data capabilities. Founded in Berlin in 2021, Payrails has raised over $52 million from the world's top investors including Andreessen Horowitz, HV Capital, EQT Ventures and General Catalyst.
