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PayPal Ventures, the corporate venture arm of the payments group, is winding down operations and has paused new investment activity, according to reporting from Fortune and TechCrunch citing multiple sources, a development a PayPal spokesperson confirmed in hedged terms.
"As part of our continued efforts to sharpen our focus, we are exploring strategic options for our corporate venture arm," the spokesperson said.
The pause is likely to have direct consequences for MENA. In September 2025, PayPal committed $100 million to back startups across the Middle East and Africa, to be deployed through minority stakes, acquisitions and follow-on funding, much of it via PayPal Ventures. With the venture arm now paused, it is unclear whether that capital will be deployed at all, whether through a restructured vehicle, a new model, or not.
The commitment built on a small existing regional portfolio. PayPal Ventures has backed UAE BNPL unicorn Tabby, as well as Egyptian payments platform Paymob. The $100 million was intended to scale up that activity, and followed the opening of PayPal's first regional hub in Dubai in April 2025.
The reversal comes on the back of a change at the top of PayPal. The pledge was announced under former CEO Alex Chriss, who had framed it as central to PayPal's emerging-markets push. Chriss left in February 2026, with the board saying he had failed to keep pace with industry changes, and was replaced by HP veteran Enrique Lores, who arrived with a restructuring mandate.
Lores has told investors PayPal needs to "recommit to the fundamentals" and focus on "becoming a technology company again," with further cuts expected over the coming years and the company reportedly exploring secondary sales of venture holdings, having hired Jefferies to run the process.
PayPal Ventures still exists on paper, with a small team supporting a portfolio built across more than 80 investments and three funds totalling $850 million, including Plaid and Anchorage Digital. New investments, though, have stopped.
The withdrawal comes even as MENA fintech has held up as the region's strongest sector, leading funding for months through a geopolitically turbulent first half of 2026 on the back of a record $7.5 billion regional total in 2025.
Where the gap has opened is at growth stage, with regional capital typically clustering around early-stage rounds and a handful of mega-deals, leaving the mid-sized rounds of roughly $20 million to $75 million among the hardest to close, the bracket a dedicated $100 million strategic pot would have been well placed to fill.
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