What's new

2022 — a dismal year for Pakistani startups

MenInG

PakPassion Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Runs
217,910
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We welcome the recent investment of 85 Million USD by leading VCs of the world in Airlift, a company led by young Pakistanis. Pakistan has huge potential and we are open for business. My govt is fully committed to creating opportunities.</p>— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1428615652818841604?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Airlift Technologies Pvt. has scored the largest single private funding round in Pakistan’s history ahead of plans to enter overseas markets, as the country begins to join a regional startup financing boom.

The Lahore-based online shopping delivery firm raised $85 million in Series B financing co-led by Harry Stebbings from 20VC and Josh Buckley from Buckley Ventures Ltd., with participation from former Y Combinator president Sam Altman. That would be the largest-ever round for a Pakistani startup, according to a data tracker from venture capitalist fund Invest2Innovate.

Pakistan is “in the very early stages, but the transformation is happening very, very quickly and we are seeing a shift in behavior,” Airlift co-founder Usman Gul said in an interview. “We have a lot of people who previously didn’t shop online.”

The investment in Pakistan, a country of more than 200 million people -- the world’s fifth-most populous -- with a fledgling tech industry, mirrors a wave of investment across the border in India. Pakistani startups, the bulk of which are focused on e-commerce, raised a record $101 million in the first half of this year compared with $66 million in all of 2020, according to Invest2Innovate data. That’s still dwarfed by its neighbor, where technology startups scored a record $6.3 billion in the second quarter.

For Airlift, the funding comes after the company pivoted around September into e-commerce with 30-minute shipments after the pandemic halted their main business -- selling air-conditioned bus rides. It enters a space that’s hotly competitive around the world, where grocers and e-commerce startups like Dunzo, Gorillas, Getir, and Gopuff battle to provide swift deliveries across traffic-clogged cities from Delhi to New York and London.

Airlift’s fund raise is equal to the entire amount raised by Pakistani startups in the first half of the year. It also eclipses the largest initial public offering by the nation’s private sector, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

It now plans to expand its operations to 15 Pakistani cities by end of the year, up from a current eight. It’s also in the middle of a hiring spree with plans to double its core workforce to 400 by the end of next year, Gul said. The company is looking to enter an overseas developing market in about three months.

“Very quickly we realized that the distribution of consumer goods was quite broken,” he said. “I ordered groceries and had to wait six hours to get that delivery. So we wanted to change that.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rd-pakistan-startup-funding-as-commerce-booms
 
Marham, an online healthcare platform in Pakistan, has recently raised $1 million in a seed round led by Indus Valley Capital with the participation of Weihan Liew, a serial tech entrepreneur in Southeast Asia.

WHAT IT DOES

Marham is a mobile app and web-based platform launched in 2015. It claims to be the first health startup in Pakistan that enabled patients to book consultations with doctors online. The company now also allows users to schedule a lab test and order medicines via its platform. The startup hosts a network of around 20,000 doctors and serves about 10 million patients in the country.

WHY IT MATTERS

Tech news site MENAbytes said in a report that Marham will use its latest investment to offer more digital services and expand its reach to smaller cities and rural areas across Pakistan.

It noted that the seed round represents its first capital raising event, having had to sustain its operations through personal savings.

THE LARGER TREND

In June, fellow Pakistani digital health platform Dawaai bagged $8.5 million in a financing round led by US-based 500 Startups. It operates an online pharmacy, as well as offers teleconsultations, nursing, physiotherapy and at-home lab testing through its mobile app and web portal.

ON THE RECORD

"Our vision is to build a healthcare ecosystem, for patients, doctors and hospitals to ensure faster care and better experience via technology, processes and telemedicine-enabled micro-clinics across Pakistan," Marham Co-founder and CEO Ehsan Imam reportedly said in a press statement.

https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/apac/pakistani-health-startup-marham-nets-1m-seed-round
 
Bahrain-based Zayani Venture Capital and Dubai’s Tricap investments have participated in Pakistan-based B2B e-commerce startup Dastgyr’s $3.5 million Seed round, led by SOSV. Other investors participating in this round include ADB Ventures, the Asian Development Bank’s venture capital arm, Seedstars, and Edgebrook Partners.

Launched in 2020 by Muhammad Owais Qureshi and Zohaib Ali, Dastgyr looks to serve two million retailers in Pakistan by linking them directly with wholesalers, offering next-day delivery for 2,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs). Products available for purchase on Dastgyr range from fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), stationery to mobile accessories and soon clothes.

“We started piloting the product in May 2020, at the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak. In September, we officially launched the app and kicked off operations. Since then, We've served 30,000 customers in Karachi and Lahore, we've fulfilled orders worth several millions of dollars,” Saif Ali, general manager and head of marketing and public relations (PR) department at Dastgyr told Wamda.

With the fresh funding, the startup will be able to scale its sorting centre operations and grow its team. It also plans to launch its fintech-focused products in Q3 2021.

According to Ali, Dastgyr will soon prepare for its Series A round, which will enable the startup to fuel its expansion to international markets, including Egypt and the UAE.

https://www.wamda.com/2021/07/zayani-vc-tricap-invest-pakistan-based-dastgyrs-3-5-million-seed-round
 
https://nation.com.pk/04-Jun-2021/pak-kuwait-investment-company-makes-equity-investment-in-planet-n

Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company (Private) Limited (PKIC) announces that it is making an equity investment of Rs500m in Planet N (Private) Limited. This is the largest equity investment by a local Financial Institution in a Tech Investment Platform in Pakistan. It was approved by the Board of PKIC in December, 2020. This investment will not only help Planet N expand its operations, but it will also motivate other investors to explore opportunities to develop and strengthen tech entrepreneurship and disruption in the country. With total assets of over Rs107b and equity of over Rs38b, PKIC is Pakistan’s leading DFI engaged in investment and development financing activities in the country.

PKIC was established as a joint venture between the Governments of Pakistan and Kuwait in 1979. It is a “AAA” (Triple A) rated financial institution.

Planet N has invested and nurtured tech start-ups such as Tapmad TV, Dawaai.pk, PublishEx, Tez Financial Services, Datalift, PiePie, Kashat, JinglePay, etc. spread across various jurisdictions including Pakistan, UAE, Egypt, Singapore and USA. It currently has more than 30 companies in its portfolio focusing on financial inclusion, fintech, digital media, data science & AI. This portfolio is expected to grow further after the equity investment by PKIC.

Planet N was founded by Nadeem Hussain in 2016; with a vision to invest in growth oriented hi-tech companies.
 
IA from these small to big investments we develop our digital economy. The $85mn investment is amazing
 
good news, however paks issue is not start ups, or lack of creativity. its a non-financialised economy which makes scaling businesses virtually impossible. any good idea is likely to bought out by foreign companies and turned into the pakistan operation of a multinational operation.

dont get me wrong, the multinationals are very important as they employ tonnes of people, however fundamentally they use the pakistani market to pay for these employees and the excess may repatriated to the parent company, if investment in another country is a better business decision than investment in Pakistan.
 
Pakistan's Maqsad, an edtech platform, has become the latest in the string of local startups to raise multi-million dollars in financing, announcing a $2.1-million pre-seed round on Monday.

The round was led by Indus Valley Capital. Alter Global, Fatima Gobi Ventures, and several individual founders from Pakistan and Middle East also participated in the round, stated Maqsad.

The amount is the country's largest pre-seed funding after TAG ($5.5 million), an Islamabad-based fintech, Truck It In, a Karachi-based marketplace ($4.5 million), and equals the one raised by SadaPay.

In the edtech space, Maqsad's funding follows that of Lahore-based Edkasa that announced earlier this year that it raised $320,000 in pre-seed funding.

About Maqsad

Maqsad, founded by Taha Ahmed and Rooshan Aziz, is a mobile-only platform that delivers localised academic content in both English and Urdu.

Maqsad will be launching its mobile app in Q4 2021 and currently has a wait-list in place for early-access, according to the company. The amount would be used to expand its workforce, and build technology/content as it looks to scale up.

“We’ve been looking to invest in a startup transforming education in Pakistan since Indus Valley’s inception,” Aatif Awan, the founder and Managing Partner of Indus Valley Capital, was quoted as saying in the press release sent by Maqsad.

Pakistan’s BridgeLinx, a digital freight platform, raises $10mn in seed round

The Covid-19 pandemic has added to Pakistan's education woes with a online-only model troubling the country's schools just as much.

“Struggles of students during the early days of the pandemic motivated us to run a pilot. With promising initial traction and user feedback, the potential to digitise the education sector became very clear," said Rooshan, previously a banker at BNP Paribas in London.

Ali Mukhtar, General Partner of Fatima Gobi Ventures, said, Pakistan’s edtech opportunity is one of the largest in the world.

Startup craze

Pakistan's startup landscape has been in the news every other week with several companies announcing sizable funding from both series and seed funding rounds.

Pakistan’s Truck It In raises $3 million, closes pre-seed at $4.5 million

Just days ago, BridgeLinx, the Lahore-based company that commenced operation nine months ago as a digital freight network, marketplace, and solutions provider, managed to raise $10 million, the country's largest seed capital investment that beat the previous $7.2 million raised by Sada Pay earlier this year.

Last month, Airlift, a transportation platform, announced it secured $85 million in the largest Series B financing in Pakistan’s startup history. The financing was about twice the size of the largest private company IPO in Pakistan’s history and the highest in the MENA region, bringing a number of implications for the country.

Based on Emerging Venture Markets (EVM) E-commerce Venture Investment Report by Magnitt, Pakistan's ecommerce startups in just the first half of 2021 raised double the capital they did in FY2020, accounting for 17% of funding deployed across Emerging Venture Markets.

Amongst Emerging Venture Markets, Pakistan was the only one to see a YoY increase in ecommerce deals in H1 2021, added the report.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/4012...-maqsad-raises-21-million-in-pre-seed-funding
 
The startup scene in the world’s fifth-largest nation is having a breakout year.

More money has flowed into Pakistan’s nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the U.S., Singapore and the United Arab Emirates joining the rush. And one former Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corp. employee has been involved in about half the fundraising deals.

Until 2018, Pakistan-born Aatif Awan was living the dream in Silicon Valley. After more than a decade working for tech heavyweights, he’d become an angel investor for American startups and bought a house in San Francisco. Then he went to visit his parents in Lodhran — a small town known for growing mangoes and cotton — and new opportunities became clear.

Multiple local entrepreneurs got in touch, seeking advice on funding and how to accelerate their startups. That’s when Awan, 41, saw the possibilities in Pakistan’s startup space. He moved back in February last year and started his early-stage venture capital fund, Indus Valley Capital.

“The law and order situation is so good, mobile penetration is there, everything seems right for this to happen,” he said.

While neighboring India has long had a vibrant startup scene, foreign investors have traditionally viewed Pakistan with trepidation: Security concerns, power shortages and poor digital infrastructure have all counted against it in the past. But by other measures, the potential in fintech and retail is huge. Two thirds of the 200 million population are under 30, most shopping is still done in cash and relatively few people have a bank account. Internet users have more than tripled in the past five years, to about 110 million.

By global standards, the sum poured into the country’s startups this year — about $300 million, according to Crunchbase and Invest2Innovate data — is tiny. But it’s a record for Pakistan and the funding surge is expected to continue.

Silicon Valley-based Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., made its first investment there this year. Defy Partners Management LLC, Singapore’s Wavemaker Partners LLC and UAE’s Zayn Capital Ltd. are also on the list of investors.

Pakistan “has all the necessary ingredients to be a large market that is growing rapidly,” said Mamoon Hamid, a partner at Kleiner Perkins. “Just given the youth of the population, we believe that they will adopt the new way of doing things much faster than most countries on the globe.''

The venture industry is enjoying something of a boom everywhere.

Global deals this year surged to $524.1 billion by the end of October, according to research firm Preqin — 66% higher than last year’s total and more than double the amount invested in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has made some things easier for international investors, as Zoom meetings and exchanging documents by email have replaced in-person meetings. Meanwhile, China’s tech crackdown has also prompted investors to hunt for new opportunities, with startups from Southeast Asia to India seeing increased interest from venture capital and private equity firms. To some, the capital flowing into Pakistan is yet another sign of frothiness in the market; to others, it’s the logical next step in a global race to invest.

“The Internet economy has exploded over the last five to seven years, and I think that is the main catalyst,” said Ali Mukhtar, general partner at Fatima Gobi Ventures, whose portfolio companies have been involved in about 40% of Pakistan’s fundraising this year. The large diaspora in places like Silicon Valley, London and New York has also helped to provide a talent base and funding, he added.


Many young nationals have left high-paying overseas jobs at places like Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & Co. and BNP Paribas SA to become entrepreneurs back home. The opportunity has also seen a few foreigners moving to Pakistan.

The country has “the last large population that hasn’t been tapped,” said U.S. citizen Jordan Olivas, 32, co-founder of QisstPay Inc. The Islamabad-based startup is modeled on Klarna Bank AB, a buy-now, pay-later fintech firm and Olivas’s former employer.

“Just the population size and the average age of the consumer alone creates a good market,” he said. “Up until this year there hasn’t been any big VC money coming in.”

In addition to rising interest from global venture capital companies, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is also benefiting from a growing network of local investors, incubators and shared working spaces. Pakistan’s government has also increased support for the tech sector after realizing its potential for exports.


The startup scene’s atmosphere is encapsulated at the Karachi offices of e-commerce startup Bazaar Technologies Pvt., which in August raised $30 million in the nation’s largest series A fundraising. Of more than a dozen investors, only one met with the company in person.

Tucked away in an old office building, it’s a modern workspace with gleaming floors and furniture that buzzes with casually dressed young workers. Co-founders Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, both 28, respectively worked in Dubai for McKinsey and ride-hailing company Careem Inc. before returning home last year to start Bazaar, which operates a business-to-business marketplace for grocery stores.

Just a few years ago, startups in Pakistan struggled to raise funding. Risk-averse banks routinely turned down loan applications from entrepreneurs, while most cash-rich businesses and other private investors were not even willing to speak with them.

“In 2012, there were zero significant funding sources,” said Kalsoom Lakhani, co-founder of investment fund i2i Ventures. “You really had to have the network in Pakistan to raise your funds for business.”

“If you fast forward, there has been a support system that has been growing in speed around the startups,” she said.

A number of risks could slow the funding momentum. Investors may lose faith if Pakistan’s pace of digital adoption is slower than expected — and banks with big pockets have been failing for decades to convince most of the population to take up bank accounts. An abrupt change of government policy — such as a more punishing tax regime or stricter regulation — would be a real threat to the fledgling tech sector. Investors may also find it difficult to exit through Pakistan’s stock market since startup valuations are high relative to listed companies, according to Suleman Rafiq Maniya, head of advisory at Vector Securities Pvt. Pakistan being on the monitoring list of the Financial Action Task Force, a financial watchdog, is also a concern for investors and has created extra hurdles for startups.

For now though, there’s a lot of venture capital funding to be scooped up. “People realized this is a much larger force,” said Awan.

Several startups have found themselves attracting more money than they had initially sought, while ideas and the results of a small test-run can be enough to raise funds, according to people who asked not to be named since the matter is private. Some are also hiring staff at double or triple their current salary as they have money to spend, two of the people said.

“If you have a good team and a good idea, you’d come in and just revolutionize,” said Olivas. “There’s so much white space.”

Early-stage success stories include Airlift Technologies Pvt., a Lahore-based online shopping delivery platform, which in August raised $85 million in the nation’s largest single private funding round ahead of overseas expansion plans. Digital payments startup TAG Innovation Pvt. is now valued at $100 million after raising funds in September, while competitor SadaPay is projected to be the fastest-growing mobile wallet in the world in the five years to 2025, according to London-based fintech company Boku Inc. Neither company has begun fully fledged operations yet.

“What happened in China, India and Indonesia has started to happen in Pakistan, only faster,” said Awan. “The wheel has started turning now.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ey-helped-by-covid-and-china-s-tech-crackdown
 
The startup scene in the world’s fifth-largest nation is having a breakout year.

More money has flowed into Pakistan’s nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the U.S., Singapore and the United Arab Emirates joining the rush. And one former Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corp. employee has been involved in about half the fundraising deals.

Until 2018, Pakistan-born Aatif Awan was living the dream in Silicon Valley. After more than a decade working for tech heavyweights, he’d become an angel investor for American startups and bought a house in San Francisco. Then he went to visit his parents in Lodhran — a small town known for growing mangoes and cotton — and new opportunities became clear.

Multiple local entrepreneurs got in touch, seeking advice on funding and how to accelerate their startups. That’s when Awan, 41, saw the possibilities in Pakistan’s startup space. He moved back in February last year and started his early-stage venture capital fund, Indus Valley Capital.

“The law and order situation is so good, mobile penetration is there, everything seems right for this to happen,” he said.

While neighboring India has long had a vibrant startup scene, foreign investors have traditionally viewed Pakistan with trepidation: Security concerns, power shortages and poor digital infrastructure have all counted against it in the past. But by other measures, the potential in fintech and retail is huge. Two thirds of the 200 million population are under 30, most shopping is still done in cash and relatively few people have a bank account. Internet users have more than tripled in the past five years, to about 110 million.

By global standards, the sum poured into the country’s startups this year — about $300 million, according to Crunchbase and Invest2Innovate data — is tiny. But it’s a record for Pakistan and the funding surge is expected to continue.

Silicon Valley-based Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., made its first investment there this year. Defy Partners Management LLC, Singapore’s Wavemaker Partners LLC and UAE’s Zayn Capital Ltd. are also on the list of investors.

Pakistan “has all the necessary ingredients to be a large market that is growing rapidly,” said Mamoon Hamid, a partner at Kleiner Perkins. “Just given the youth of the population, we believe that they will adopt the new way of doing things much faster than most countries on the globe.''

The venture industry is enjoying something of a boom everywhere.

Global deals this year surged to $524.1 billion by the end of October, according to research firm Preqin — 66% higher than last year’s total and more than double the amount invested in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has made some things easier for international investors, as Zoom meetings and exchanging documents by email have replaced in-person meetings. Meanwhile, China’s tech crackdown has also prompted investors to hunt for new opportunities, with startups from Southeast Asia to India seeing increased interest from venture capital and private equity firms. To some, the capital flowing into Pakistan is yet another sign of frothiness in the market; to others, it’s the logical next step in a global race to invest.

“The Internet economy has exploded over the last five to seven years, and I think that is the main catalyst,” said Ali Mukhtar, general partner at Fatima Gobi Ventures, whose portfolio companies have been involved in about 40% of Pakistan’s fundraising this year. The large diaspora in places like Silicon Valley, London and New York has also helped to provide a talent base and funding, he added.


Many young nationals have left high-paying overseas jobs at places like Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & Co. and BNP Paribas SA to become entrepreneurs back home. The opportunity has also seen a few foreigners moving to Pakistan.

The country has “the last large population that hasn’t been tapped,” said U.S. citizen Jordan Olivas, 32, co-founder of QisstPay Inc. The Islamabad-based startup is modeled on Klarna Bank AB, a buy-now, pay-later fintech firm and Olivas’s former employer.

“Just the population size and the average age of the consumer alone creates a good market,” he said. “Up until this year there hasn’t been any big VC money coming in.”

In addition to rising interest from global venture capital companies, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is also benefiting from a growing network of local investors, incubators and shared working spaces. Pakistan’s government has also increased support for the tech sector after realizing its potential for exports.


The startup scene’s atmosphere is encapsulated at the Karachi offices of e-commerce startup Bazaar Technologies Pvt., which in August raised $30 million in the nation’s largest series A fundraising. Of more than a dozen investors, only one met with the company in person.

Tucked away in an old office building, it’s a modern workspace with gleaming floors and furniture that buzzes with casually dressed young workers. Co-founders Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, both 28, respectively worked in Dubai for McKinsey and ride-hailing company Careem Inc. before returning home last year to start Bazaar, which operates a business-to-business marketplace for grocery stores.

Just a few years ago, startups in Pakistan struggled to raise funding. Risk-averse banks routinely turned down loan applications from entrepreneurs, while most cash-rich businesses and other private investors were not even willing to speak with them.

“In 2012, there were zero significant funding sources,” said Kalsoom Lakhani, co-founder of investment fund i2i Ventures. “You really had to have the network in Pakistan to raise your funds for business.”

“If you fast forward, there has been a support system that has been growing in speed around the startups,” she said.

A number of risks could slow the funding momentum. Investors may lose faith if Pakistan’s pace of digital adoption is slower than expected — and banks with big pockets have been failing for decades to convince most of the population to take up bank accounts. An abrupt change of government policy — such as a more punishing tax regime or stricter regulation — would be a real threat to the fledgling tech sector. Investors may also find it difficult to exit through Pakistan’s stock market since startup valuations are high relative to listed companies, according to Suleman Rafiq Maniya, head of advisory at Vector Securities Pvt. Pakistan being on the monitoring list of the Financial Action Task Force, a financial watchdog, is also a concern for investors and has created extra hurdles for startups.

For now though, there’s a lot of venture capital funding to be scooped up. “People realized this is a much larger force,” said Awan.

Several startups have found themselves attracting more money than they had initially sought, while ideas and the results of a small test-run can be enough to raise funds, according to people who asked not to be named since the matter is private. Some are also hiring staff at double or triple their current salary as they have money to spend, two of the people said.

“If you have a good team and a good idea, you’d come in and just revolutionize,” said Olivas. “There’s so much white space.”

Early-stage success stories include Airlift Technologies Pvt., a Lahore-based online shopping delivery platform, which in August raised $85 million in the nation’s largest single private funding round ahead of overseas expansion plans. Digital payments startup TAG Innovation Pvt. is now valued at $100 million after raising funds in September, while competitor SadaPay is projected to be the fastest-growing mobile wallet in the world in the five years to 2025, according to London-based fintech company Boku Inc. Neither company has begun fully fledged operations yet.

“What happened in China, India and Indonesia has started to happen in Pakistan, only faster,” said Awan. “The wheel has started turning now.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ey-helped-by-covid-and-china-s-tech-crackdown
 
The startup scene in the world’s fifth-largest nation is having a breakout year.

More money has flowed into Pakistan’s nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the U.S., Singapore and the United Arab Emirates joining the rush. And one former Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corp. employee has been involved in about half the fundraising deals.

Until 2018, Pakistan-born Aatif Awan was living the dream in Silicon Valley. After more than a decade working for tech heavyweights, he’d become an angel investor for American startups and bought a house in San Francisco. Then he went to visit his parents in Lodhran — a small town known for growing mangoes and cotton — and new opportunities became clear.

Multiple local entrepreneurs got in touch, seeking advice on funding and how to accelerate their startups. That’s when Awan, 41, saw the possibilities in Pakistan’s startup space. He moved back in February last year and started his early-stage venture capital fund, Indus Valley Capital.

“The law and order situation is so good, mobile penetration is there, everything seems right for this to happen,” he said.

While neighboring India has long had a vibrant startup scene, foreign investors have traditionally viewed Pakistan with trepidation: Security concerns, power shortages and poor digital infrastructure have all counted against it in the past. But by other measures, the potential in fintech and retail is huge. Two thirds of the 200 million population are under 30, most shopping is still done in cash and relatively few people have a bank account. Internet users have more than tripled in the past five years, to about 110 million.

By global standards, the sum poured into the country’s startups this year — about $300 million, according to Crunchbase and Invest2Innovate data — is tiny. But it’s a record for Pakistan and the funding surge is expected to continue.

Silicon Valley-based Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., made its first investment there this year. Defy Partners Management LLC, Singapore’s Wavemaker Partners LLC and UAE’s Zayn Capital Ltd. are also on the list of investors.

Pakistan “has all the necessary ingredients to be a large market that is growing rapidly,” said Mamoon Hamid, a partner at Kleiner Perkins. “Just given the youth of the population, we believe that they will adopt the new way of doing things much faster than most countries on the globe.''

The venture industry is enjoying something of a boom everywhere.

Global deals this year surged to $524.1 billion by the end of October, according to research firm Preqin — 66% higher than last year’s total and more than double the amount invested in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has made some things easier for international investors, as Zoom meetings and exchanging documents by email have replaced in-person meetings. Meanwhile, China’s tech crackdown has also prompted investors to hunt for new opportunities, with startups from Southeast Asia to India seeing increased interest from venture capital and private equity firms. To some, the capital flowing into Pakistan is yet another sign of frothiness in the market; to others, it’s the logical next step in a global race to invest.

“The Internet economy has exploded over the last five to seven years, and I think that is the main catalyst,” said Ali Mukhtar, general partner at Fatima Gobi Ventures, whose portfolio companies have been involved in about 40% of Pakistan’s fundraising this year. The large diaspora in places like Silicon Valley, London and New York has also helped to provide a talent base and funding, he added.


Many young nationals have left high-paying overseas jobs at places like Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & Co. and BNP Paribas SA to become entrepreneurs back home. The opportunity has also seen a few foreigners moving to Pakistan.

The country has “the last large population that hasn’t been tapped,” said U.S. citizen Jordan Olivas, 32, co-founder of QisstPay Inc. The Islamabad-based startup is modeled on Klarna Bank AB, a buy-now, pay-later fintech firm and Olivas’s former employer.

“Just the population size and the average age of the consumer alone creates a good market,” he said. “Up until this year there hasn’t been any big VC money coming in.”

In addition to rising interest from global venture capital companies, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is also benefiting from a growing network of local investors, incubators and shared working spaces. Pakistan’s government has also increased support for the tech sector after realizing its potential for exports.


The startup scene’s atmosphere is encapsulated at the Karachi offices of e-commerce startup Bazaar Technologies Pvt., which in August raised $30 million in the nation’s largest series A fundraising. Of more than a dozen investors, only one met with the company in person.

Tucked away in an old office building, it’s a modern workspace with gleaming floors and furniture that buzzes with casually dressed young workers. Co-founders Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, both 28, respectively worked in Dubai for McKinsey and ride-hailing company Careem Inc. before returning home last year to start Bazaar, which operates a business-to-business marketplace for grocery stores.

Just a few years ago, startups in Pakistan struggled to raise funding. Risk-averse banks routinely turned down loan applications from entrepreneurs, while most cash-rich businesses and other private investors were not even willing to speak with them.

“In 2012, there were zero significant funding sources,” said Kalsoom Lakhani, co-founder of investment fund i2i Ventures. “You really had to have the network in Pakistan to raise your funds for business.”

“If you fast forward, there has been a support system that has been growing in speed around the startups,” she said.

A number of risks could slow the funding momentum. Investors may lose faith if Pakistan’s pace of digital adoption is slower than expected — and banks with big pockets have been failing for decades to convince most of the population to take up bank accounts. An abrupt change of government policy — such as a more punishing tax regime or stricter regulation — would be a real threat to the fledgling tech sector. Investors may also find it difficult to exit through Pakistan’s stock market since startup valuations are high relative to listed companies, according to Suleman Rafiq Maniya, head of advisory at Vector Securities Pvt. Pakistan being on the monitoring list of the Financial Action Task Force, a financial watchdog, is also a concern for investors and has created extra hurdles for startups.

For now though, there’s a lot of venture capital funding to be scooped up. “People realized this is a much larger force,” said Awan.

Several startups have found themselves attracting more money than they had initially sought, while ideas and the results of a small test-run can be enough to raise funds, according to people who asked not to be named since the matter is private. Some are also hiring staff at double or triple their current salary as they have money to spend, two of the people said.

“If you have a good team and a good idea, you’d come in and just revolutionize,” said Olivas. “There’s so much white space.”

Early-stage success stories include Airlift Technologies Pvt., a Lahore-based online shopping delivery platform, which in August raised $85 million in the nation’s largest single private funding round ahead of overseas expansion plans. Digital payments startup TAG Innovation Pvt. is now valued at $100 million after raising funds in September, while competitor SadaPay is projected to be the fastest-growing mobile wallet in the world in the five years to 2025, according to London-based fintech company Boku Inc. Neither company has begun fully fledged operations yet.

“What happened in China, India and Indonesia has started to happen in Pakistan, only faster,” said Awan. “The wheel has started turning now.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ey-helped-by-covid-and-china-s-tech-crackdown

World’s fifth largest nation? Are these guys not checking the articles before posting? I’m guessing fifth most populous one?

Irrespective otherwise it’s a good thing, tech is way forward for all 3rd world countries.
 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-26/pakistani-software-firm-coeus-solutions-plans-ipo-next-quarter

Pakistan’s Coeus Solutions Ltd., which develops and manages software for mostly German clients, plans an initial public offer next quarter as appetite for technology stocks in the South Asian country grows.

The Lahore-based company plans to raise $5 million by listing on the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s Growth Enterprise Market Board, Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Ahsan Naseem said. The company, which has a second office in Berlin, caters to 30,000 businesses in Germany including Audi AG and Allianz SE.

The offering comes as Pakistan is seeing record investments in its startups. The nation has seen its IT exports grow during the pandemic and is looking to double them in two years by setting up dedicated technology zones and giving incentives, after missing out on earlier tech booms in nations like India.

Pakistan’s appetite for tech stocks is increasing as well. Software company Systems Ltd. is the top performer on the benchmark KSE-100 Index this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Octopus Digital Ltd.’s IPO was subscribed within 30 minutes and received offers for 27 times the shares on sale, the highest in the nation’s history.

Coeus Solutions plans to use the proceeds to fund acquisitions and expand its products in the remote-working space, said Naseem. “We believe the Pakistani tech scene is ripe for a consolidation play,” he said.

KTrade KASB Securities Ltd. is the financial adviser to the transaction.
 
Pakistani startups have continued to remain high on the global investors' radar, with global investments crossing $300 million this year.

Travel and ticketing startup Bookme and beauty and fashion startup Bagallery have attracted a combined $12 million in an advanced round of fundraising.

Bookme, the largest online travel and ticketing platform in the country, has raised $7.5 million in its Series A round, according to its founder Faizan Aslam, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

Bagallery, a beauty and fashion startup, raised $4.5 million in a similar round, co-founder Salman Sattar told the international media outlet.

Both rounds were co-led by Zayn Capital, Lakson Venture Capital and Hayaat Global.

With this, global investment has reached $310 million.

The investment is a record high for the country, more than what Pakistan attracted cumulatively over the past six years.

Pakistan has huge potential to attract foreign funding since it has largely remained untapped.

The country adopted technology-driven solutions at an accelerated pace during the Covid pandemic, and the required infrastructure, including 4G internet is available, as authorities are already making efforts in this regard.

The combined international funding of around $310 million in domestic startups is more than what companies raised at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during the year.

Many global venture capital firms have invested in Pakistani startups for the first time, including Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in Google and Amazon Inc.

Pakistan’s e-commerce industry is picking up with online retail accounting for about 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 20% in Indonesia, Bloomberg added.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Daraz Group, the largest e-commerce company in Pakistan, expects to double its retail volume every year over the next five years, sustaining the pace of the past four years.
 
<b>Dawn: Pakistani q-commerce startup Krave Mart raises $6m in pre-seed funding</b>

<I>Krave Mart, a quick-commerce (q-commerce) startup offering the delivery of groceries and other products in 10 minutes, has raised $6 million in a pre-seed funding round less than four months after its establishment, the company said on Wednesday.</I>

According to a statement issued by the startup, the investment was led by China's MSA Capital and Russia’s ru-Net while German Global Founders Capital and Islamabad-based Zayn Capital co-led the deal. Other participating investors included Saison Capital, +92Ventures, 2AM, Mehta Ventures, Jeddar Capital, Lakson Investment and multiple strategic angel investors.

Krave Mart was co-founded towards the end of August by a team of former executives of Daraz, Foodpanda and Swvl, the statement said.

“The Krave team consists of rockstars from Daraz, FoodPanda and Swvl. We feel that the collective experience of this team will allow them to scale rapidly as they have no learning curve in the quick commerce vertical," the statement quoted Zayn Frontier Fund Co-Founder and Managing Partner Faisal Aftab as saying.

"We’re really excited to be a part of their journey to create the next generation of e-commerce & delivery in Pakistan,” he said.

According to the statement, Krave Mart, which launched its services in November, currently covers 25 per cent of Karachi’s population and aims to bring that number to 100pc by January 2022, before expanding to other cities.

At the moment, the company's product catalogue includes groceries, personal care products, health and beauty products and other everyday essentials, "promised to be delivered in 10 minutes through a network of dark stores".

“Pakistan has the potential for 500+ dark stores with high population density areas," Krave Mart COO Haziq Ahmed noted in the statement, adding that "our teams are lean, agile and efficient, which is helping us in scaling faster than any q-commerce player in the world."

"We aspire to build a sustainable business model starting with groceries and eventually incorporating fashion, beauty, electronics and other categories super customised as per the locality and consumer," he further said. "The 10-minute delivery model is going to be the game-changer for this industry and will set a bar for all the players to come in the q-commerce landscape."

Meanwhile, MSA Capital said in a statement that “Quick commerce will redefine how users shop for groceries in Pakistan, which today is a hyper-fragmented and inefficient [in terms of] experience. We've benchmarked and invested in similar models globally and believe Pakistan is a market ripe for disruption."
 
Tazah, a B2B agriculture marketplace in Pakistan, announced on Wednesday that it has raised another $4.5 million in a pre-seed round after last raising $2m in October.

A statement issued by the startup said it was "Pakistan’s largest pre-seed round extension" and brought the total amount raised to $6.5m.

It added that the extension was co-led by Fatima Gobi Ventures (FGV) and Vibe Capital, with participation from Shorooq Partners, Nuwa Capital, Ru-net, Alter Global, Julian.Capital, Venture for Pakistan, Early Grey Capital and K3 Fund. The round also had participation from prolific Silicon Valley-based angel investors including Sahil Bloom, Siqi Chen, Matt Brezina, among others.

Existing investors including Global Founders Capital, Zayn Capital, i2i Ventures and notable angels also followed on in the round, the statement said.

Co-founder Abrar Bajwa told Dawn.com that with the new proceeds, the startup was aiming to offer working capital financing to fresh produce sellers and streamline the fresh produce supply by reducing the time between harvest and sale.

"We are excited to have the confidence of some of the most active investors in Pakistan. We are also grateful for all the value added by our existing investors and their continuous backing of Tazah.

"The new investments will help us accelerate our market dominance and execute some exciting projects that will help us improve our margins as we scale," the statement quoted him as saying.

Co-founder Mohsin Zaka said that the duo's experience leading large national teams and growing complex marketplaces helped them in rapidly scaling the business and build the capability to manage multi-city operations.

"We have also built a very strong founding team by acquiring the best talent from different industries," he said.

The two co-founders have previously held leadership positions at ride-hailing giants such as Careem and Swvl. They founded Tazah in August, basing its headquarters in Lahore and have already expanded operations into Karachi with another city launch on the agenda.

"Tazah has scaled operations to an annualised gross merchandise value of $7m in a little more than four months of operations," the statement said.

Ali Mukhtar, a general partner for FGV, said: "At FGV, we constantly envision Pakistan’s tomorrow, today — and that is the essence of Tazah, which is revolutionising Pakistan’s massive yet incredibly complex agricultural sector to solve inefficiencies in food and agri supply chains."

He added that what Tazah set out to achieve was "incredibly ambitious" but FGV couldn't wait to see what the startup did next.

Ankur Nagpal, founder of Vibe Capital, said they were most excited about the ability to build additional products — particularly financial products — for this market.

"Tazah is in a great position to start extending lines of credit to their business buyers that they pay off after reselling the inventory," he was quoted by the statement as saying.

DAWN
 
Funding of Pakistani Startups Crosses $300 Million This Year

A funding frenzy in Pakistan’s startup scene this year has seen investments cross $300 million after two e-commerce companies raised fresh funds.

Bookme, the largest online travel and ticketing platform in the country, raised $7.5 million in its Series A round, according to its founder Faizan Aslam. Bagallery, a beauty and fashion startup, separately raised $4.5 million in a similar round, co-founder Salman Sattar said. Both rounds were co-led by Zayn Capital, Lakson Venture Capital and Hayaat Global.

The South Asian nation has seen more money flow into its nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined. Many global venture capital firms have invested in Pakistan for the first time in the current wave including Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in Google and Amazon.com Inc.

Lift Off
Pakistan's startups raise record $310 million in 2021

Pakistan’s e-commerce industry is just picking up with online retail accounting for about 2% of gross domestic product, compared with 20% in Indonesia. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Daraz Group, the largest e-commerce company in Pakistan, expects to double its retail volume every year over the next five years, sustaining the pace of the past four years.

Startup Fever Grips Pakistan, World’s Last Big Untapped Nation

Fashion is the largest segment within e-commerce and Bagallery founders believe there will be as many as four unicorns in Pakistan in the next seven years. The country has none so far.

https://www.bloomberg.com/technology
 
Very encouraging progress but a long way to go.
 
Federal Minister for Information Technology Syed Aminul Haq has said that the IT sector contributes $3.5 billion to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He said this during a ceremony held to sign a contract for the establishment of an incubation centre in Hyderabad.

The Ministry of IT & Telecommunication will launch its 7th National Incubation Centre (NIC) in Hyderabad by summer of this year. The federal minister was the chief guest on the occasion.

The agreement was signed by Ignite CEO Asim Shahryar Husain and University of Sindh Jamshoro Hyderabad Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro.

The ceremony was attended by MQM Member National Assembly Engineer Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani, Federal Secretary for IT & Telecom Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput, officials from IT Ministry, Ignite, University of Sindh, academia, business communities and others personalities from to IT Industries.

Speaking on the occasion, Haque said that the Ministry of IT & Telecom through its Organisation Ignite-National Technology Fund has already established five NICs, one each at Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Lahore and Peshawar, while the 6th NIC is being established in Faisalabad which will focus the agri-tech. In accordance with the government’s vision for 'digital Pakistan' and provision of an enabling environment for potential entrepreneurs, more NICs are being established in second tier cities and incubators in health-tech, gaming & animation and electronics, he added Therefore, to move forward, NIC is being established at Hyderabad to improve the effectiveness of variety of industries, including agriculture, livestock, ornamental industrial products, textile, sugar and cement, located at Hyderabad & its adjacent areas, he further said.

“Establishment of National Incubation Center at Hyderabad (13000 Sq Feet Area) has become a dire need for youth of Hyderabad and its surrounding rural Nd urban areas to transform traditional business approach into an innovative tech-oriented form,” Haque said.

He said that according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) global crises report 2021, the world could face many risks and threats pertaining to price instability, debt crises, commodity shocks, digital power concentration, and digital inequality. The good news is that Pakistan achieved decent economic growth in 2021 despite those risks, he added. This is due to the effective implementation of government policies and vision of the present government for prosperous Pakistan, he further said.

“During the outgoing year, an increase was observed not only in the yield of major crops but also in IT & ITeS exports. The IT Sector of Pakistan is contributing almost 1 percent of the GDP or almost around $3.5 billion,” he added.

Haque further stated that, Federal Ministry of IT & Telecom has been providing an enabling environment for all stakeholders of startup ecosystem to promote startup culture and attract foreign investments. Moreover, State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) have also relaxed rules for attracting investment in technology-based business solutions, he added.

“As a result of these steps, investments in Pakistani startups have been at skyrocketing during 2021 and almost $373 million have been raised by Pakistani startup, which is almost five times higher than last year’s investment of $75 million," he further said.

VC Dr Siddique stated that the establishment of NIC is highly a praiseworthy step of the government to fill-up this need.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Ignite CEO stated that Hyderabad has always maintained its identity in all walks of life despite being the closest district near Karachi and is the agricultural hub of Sindh. Hence the city will maintain the same identity while having its own NIC, he added.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2338165/it-sector-contributing-35b-to-gdp-minister
 
https://www.dawn.com/news/1669408/pakistans-doctor-booking-platform-oladoc-raises-18m-in-pre-series-a-funding

Oladoc, a Pakistani platform for booking doctors' appointments and healthcare teleconsultation, has raised $1.8 million in a Pre-Series A round, the company said on Friday.

The round was led by Sarmayacar Ventures along with participation from Doha Tech Angels and other angel investors, Oaldoc said in a statement, adding that while the round was closed in 2021, the official confirmation of it securing the funding was made today (Friday).

The statement quoted Sarmayacar founder and Chief Executive Officer Rabeel Warraich as saying: "We are excited to partner with Oladoc on their journey to provide quality healthcare to everyone in Pakistan. Oladoc’s team has demonstrated strong on the ground execution, helping establish Oladoc as the number one doctor-booking platform in Pakistan."

"We look forward to working with the founders to accelerate Oladoc’s growth and unlock the full market potential," he added.

According to the statement, Oaldoc, which was founded by Abid Zuberi and Atif Zuberi, has a network of 8,000 doctors spread across 10 cities in Pakistan.

"The platform puts the power in the hands of patients (versus doctors), by giving them the ability to search, book, rate and review healthcare providers. In addition, the platform also provides its users the ability to order lab tests [and] save their medical history in the application," the statement read.

It added that Oladoc had served more than 15m users in the last three years and currently had more than 300,000 verified patient reviews online.

"Oladoc is on a mission to empower patients by making healthcare accessible, transparent and affordable for the masses," the statement quoted Abid as saying.

The platform's founder said the company had seen "phenomenal growth" in the past 12 months and "with a fresh funding round, [it] aims to evolve into a digital health mall that serves patients’ needs across the complete lifecycle."

Oladoc planned to scale its current value proposition along with bringing in seasoned C-level leadership, which comprises executive-level managers, to help scale the organisation faster, he added.
 
Extolling the importance of startups and export-oriented small businesses to the country’s economic growth, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday he wanted to emulate the success of Silicon Valley and make Pakistan a hub for new businesses.

Addressing the launch of the National Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) policy on Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to take stern action against government departments and officials who created hurdles in the setting up of new startups and export-oriented businesses.

Saying that fresh incentives would be extended to such businesses, which he claimed had been ignored in the past, the PM said: “We are giving SMEs bank credit facility, land for their businesses on lease and [are committed to] eradicating red tapism.”

PM Khan said the SME sector was the biggest source of employment and had a considerable share in wealth creation.

Unveils incentives for small export-oriented businesses, launches policy to encourage new ideas

Giving the example of Silicon Valley — the hub of startups and global technology companies in the US — he said youngsters around the world had become billionaires thanks to IT-related startups.

He said the government was facilitating young people in obtaining credit and other facilities and said he was happy that “$500 million investment in Pakistani startups is coming in from abroad”. This, he said, meant the country was heading in the right direction.

Talking about exports, the prime minister said that small countries like Singapore, which had a much smaller population than Pakistan, had surpassed us in terms of exports. “Singapore with a 5 million population has over $300 billion in exports, while Malaysia has $220 billion,” he said.

The PM said the government was trying to reduce regulations for SMEs to facilitate them. He particularly spoke about the no-objection certificate (NOC) regime, adding that inspections of businesses would be streamlined by using the latest computerised methods.

He recalled that the government had inherited multiple economic problems but said that despite challenges, the country saw a record rise in exports, remittances and tax collection figures.

He vowed to reach his aim of generating Rs8,000 billion in taxes during his five-year tenure, saying that work was being carried out with the help of the National Database and Registration Authority to develop a system to identify persons and entities that didn’t pay taxes.

The PM also announced that the government would not close down businesses or impose blanket lockdowns during the fresh wave of Covid-19, adding that this wave would be countered through smart lockdowns.

He called on the people to observe all standard operating procedures (SOPs) but said that the economy would not be shutdown.

In another meeting on the master plans of large cities, PM Khan said the government was placing special focus on their development as the real engines of growth.

The prime minister directed the concerned authorities to take all possible measures to clear hurdles to the completion of various development schemes on priority basis to provide maximum relief to their residents.

“Due to rural to urban migration, cities are facing multiple challenges and housing, job opportunities and civic amenities are scarce. It is necessary to work on special development packages for these big cities and they must be accelerated,” the prime minister said during the meeting.

He also directed the authorities to work in close coordination and launch a concerted campaign for the uplift of cities like Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalsbad, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala.

The meeting was attended by Information Minister Ch Fawad Hussain, Industries Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiyar and Planning Minister Asad Umar.

Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar and Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar joined the meeting via video link.

In a separate sitting convened to discuss the urea shortage, PM Khan said the government had devised a comprehensive mechanism for the distribution of fertiliser and would enlist the assistance of the district administration to ensure the availability of urea fertilizer to farmers at controlled rates.

The meeting was told that urea production during the three-year tenure of the current government surpassed 6.1 million tonnes, which had never crossed 5.5 million tones prior to 2018.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2022
 
Fintech NayaPay secures $13m as it rolls out digital payments revolution in Pakistan

Platform aims to address needs of underbanked citizens, SMBs, enabling them to create accounts and start transacting

NayaPay, a Pakistan-based fintech platform, has raised $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in South Asia. Bringing together a diverse mix of leading global institutional and angel investors, the round was led by Zayn Capital, global fund manager MSA Novo and early-stage VC Graph Ventures from Silicon Valley.

Singapore-based Saison Capital, Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital and Warren Hogarth, CEO Empower Finance, also participated in the round, alongside a major investment from the sponsors of the Lakson Group – a Pakistani conglomerate with interests in media, telecom, industrials, financial services as well as controlling stake in Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan and McDonalds Pakistan.

NayaPay is the first fintech of its kind in Pakistan having recently secured the first E-Money Institution license from the central bank, State Bank of Pakistan. It is on a mission to make financial services simpler and accessible to millions of Pakistani users. NayaPay aims to be at the forefront in the digitisation of Pakistan with its two-sided platform for the underbanked.

Pakistan presents a significant market opportunity for NayaPay, where over 50 million adults are unbanked and only 33% of women have a bank account. With 70% of the population under 35 years old, there is a significant mobile-first generation. Almost $4tn payments are made each year but only 1% of these are made digitally currently. On the merchant side, the majority of SMBs in Pakistan are unregistered, have traditionally dealt primarily in cash and have very limited access to business banking.

The fintech has launched its chat-led super app targeted primarily at students and freelancers; and is building a SaaS based platform called NayaPay Arc offering universal payment acceptance and financial management tools for SMBs. NayaPay’s platform strategy will harness the network effects between consumers and merchants, as seen in platforms, such as, Square Cash/Square, WeChat Pay, AliPay and Venmo in their native markets.

NayaPay CEO and founder Danish A Lakhani commented: “NayaPay is empowering young Pakistani adults starting their financial journey, from students stepping into adulthood to freelancers and entrepreneurs taking an active role in managing their finances. In many senses, it’s a coming-of-age moment for many and our goal is to continue to innovate and build functionality to become a part of their daily lives, for the rest of their lives.”

Danish A Lakhani added: “Micro, small and medium businesses make up 90% of the merchant-base in Pakistan and yet they are underserved when it comes to access to basic financial services. NayaPay Arc will provide universal payments acceptance and a range of business financial management tools to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners. The tools are intended to give business owners the visibility of their cash flows, pay suppliers and grow sales. Our goal is to enable them to focus on growth while we take care of the rest. By helping small businesses harness the power of technology, we believe we can transform the Pakistani economy.”

Faisal Aftab, managing partner and co-founder at Zayn Capital Fronteir, said: “We are very bullish on fintech in Pakistan. While just beginning to emerge, Pakistani fintechs have the advantage of learning from peers and placing better informed strategic bets. We were impressed by the completeness of the vision of the founding team at NayaPay, and their differentiated platform-based strategy-- first focused on servicing the needs of underbanked consumers and SMBs with specific use cases and building out from there. With a proven ability to execute on the ground, the founder has an impressive track record of building and scaling businesses in Pakistan, including the country’s largest fiber broadband service (StormFiber).”

Omar Siddiqui, general partner at Graph Ventures, added, “We are excited to partner with Danish and the NayaPay team as they scale their leading digital payments platform for consumers and merchants in Pakistan. We have been early-stage investors in 300+ companies over the past decade in the United States, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, and we are excited to see the mobile and fintech technology trends that have empowered consumers in these markets also emerge in Pakistan. NayaPay already offers the most robust solution for consumers to access next-generation financial conveniences in Pakistan, and we look forward to working with the team as they roll out new products and grow their consumer base."

Danish A Lakhani concluded: “Customer trust is a key pillar of any platform’s success. At NayaPay, we are consumed by our obsession to simplify the lives of both consumers and merchants with our app and NayaPay Arc while supporting our customers with robust and scalable technology and fanatic customer service. We are also partnering with leading banks to provide additional value and convenience to our mutual customers, eventually leading to a full digital banking experience.”

https://tribune.com.pk/story/234505...s-out-digital-payments-revolution-in-pakistan
 
https://thewomenjournal.com/2022/03...youngest-ever-ccna-professional-in-the-world/

Pakistani girl Ayesha Fatima breaks all the records and made her country proud after she achieved the title of youngest-ever Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) professional in the world. Ayesha Fatima is only 7 years old, and she already cleared the certification with flying colors.

She has broken the record set by an Indian girl named K. Visalini in 2015 when she was only 11 years old. Visalini had beaten a Pakistani boy’s record, which he had set when he was 12 years old in 2008. There are six sections in the CCNA certification. Network fundamentals, network access, IP connectivity, IP services, security fundamentals, and automation and programmability are all covered in this certification.

———

congratulations to her, seems Pakistani media is itself not interested in the news lol
 
Lahore-based startup COLABS, which provides small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs and freelancers with spaces and a tech platform to build and grow businesses, has raised $3 million in a seed round.

The round was led by Indus Valley Capital, Zayn Capital and Fatima Gobi Ventures, a press release issued by the startup said, adding that it was the first time that three leading Pakistan-focused venture capitalists (VC) were investing together in a startup.

The round was also joined by Shorooq Partners, Kinnow Capital, Muir Capital, Sai Ventures, and some key angels, including Turner Novak, William Hockey, and Teddy Himler, according to the press release.

COLABS was founded in 2019 by Omar Shah, a former private equity and venture investor, and his twin brother Ali Shah, who operates a long-established family-run real estate and development firm SABCON, which designs and builds out COLABS' facilities.
ADVERTISEMENT





Its leadership team also includes Fatima Mazhar in the role of the chief operating officer. Mazhar was one of the early executives at Careem and had helped the company scale in many international markets.

The press release said COLABS was started as a coworking platform with a "state-of-the-art facility in Lahore but has since evolved to offer several additional services and tools to entrepreneurs and freelancers, including educational boot camps and a SaaS platform for back-office solutions such as business incorporation, talent sourcing and management, payroll processing and legal and tax compliance".

"From the very beginning, COLABS has taken a different direction from conventional coworking spaces by creating a unique proposition in the market. Today, COLABS has a partner network of 100+ organisations involved in taking initiatives to boost the Pakistani startup ecosystem’s growth," the press release said.

It added that "COLABS has placed itself at the heart of the startup agenda in Pakistan through its events, networking forums and startup facilitation."

"One of the many ways COLABS creates impact is by hosting 250+ startup community-relevant events annually with an aggregate attendance of over 200,000 significant visitors to date. The facility has seen community members grow, hire the right talent, raise investment and thrive with the support provided by COLABS," the press release stated.

Moreover, it quoted co-founder Omar Shah as saying, "We had founded COLABS to help accelerate the Pakistani startup ecosystem and we’re very proud of what we have achieved in a little over three years."

"Even though we’re mainly seen as a coworking operator, what we have built is a solid foundation to make it easy for freelancers, startups, and even international companies entering Pakistan, start and manage their businesses.

"Today anyone looking to start a company in Pakistan could use COLABS not only as a place where they work but also as a partner that manages their different back-office functions,” Omar said.

With regards to the funding raised in the seed round, he said: "With the capital we have raised from leading investors today, we’re now looking to turn our offerings into software-based solutions and productise services that could also be extended to people and institutions outside of our network, in addition to bringing on world-class talent to our existing team of rockstars.”

According to the press release, "With this investment, COLABS aims to knit together a community of 100,000 entrepreneurs and freelancers in Pakistan, starting with 10,000 members within the next two years."

"This ambition will be realised through the national expansion across major cities in Pakistan like Karachi and Islamabad," the press release said, adding, "The strong foundation built over the last two years will enable COLABS to reach their envisioned goal."

The press release further quoted investor Aatif Awan, founder and managing partner of Indus Valley Capital as saying: “The first time I visited COLABS, I found the community and energy to be a microcosm of the fast-growing Pakistani tech ecosystem.

"We’re thrilled to partner with the COLABS team to help them build the leading platform and community that will power the growth of Pakistani tech across startups, freelancers and global companies expanding into Pakistan,” he added.

Similarly, Faisal Aftab, co-founder and managing partner of Zayn Capital said, “I have closely watched COLABS grow into one of the key players in Pakistan’s startup ecosystem. We were fortunate enough to have met some of the startups we invested in, at their spaces."

"Omar and his team continue to do excellent work to accelerate the growth of the startup ecosystem here and we are excited to join their journey in serving tens of thousands of founders and freelancers across Pakistan,” Aftab said.
 
Karachi-based fintech startup, Abhi Pvt., has raised funding at a $90 million valuation, within a year of starting its business, reported Bloomberg. In the latest Series A round led by Speedinvest, the startup raised $17 million in funding.

The investment marks the venture capital firm’s first investment in Pakistan. Other investors included Global Ventures, VentureSouq, VEF, Sturgeon Capital, Rallycap, FJ Labs, Fatima Gobi, Sarmayacar, and i2i Ventures.

In recent years, Pakistani startups have attracted both local and international investors looking to explore their untapped potential. In 2021 alone, startups were able to raise over $350 million, an amount larger than the past six years collectively.

Abhi offers people an alternative solution to asking their employer, family, or friends for cash until their next salary to help make ends meet. The company also gives small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) financing solutions for their working capital needs.

Chief Executive Officer Abhi, Omair Ansari, stated:

This is the first time you’re able to get this access in the country. As people and smaller companies get this access then it becomes something they want to keep using.

For registered users, the app only takes a few seconds to access funds at a flat 2 percent transaction fee. Once the user’s next paycheck arrives, the funds are deducted automatically.

Since its previous round in November, the company went from mere 200,000 users to a remarkable 650,000 and has registered more than 150 companies. Ansari claims that individuals are now accessing 15 percent to 20 percent of their monthly wage through the app.

Regarding the investment, the Abhi founders remarked:

We are on a mission to financially empower salaried individuals in Pakistan and this is just the beginning! ABHI is looking forward to partnering with more companies to help empower them and their employees with the range of financial wellness products we have to offer.

On the latest investment, General Partner at Speedinvest, Stefan Klestil, told Bloomberg:

Abhi has the potential to change millions of lives across MENA and South Asia. It’s no wonder they have been able to establish themselves as one of the fastest-growing Pakistani startups.

https://propakistani.pk/2022/04/19/abhi-pvt-reaches-90-million-valuation-within-a-year/
 
(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s SadaPay raised additional funds to become the nation’s highest-funded fintech as it received permission for full-fledged operations that will allow it to add millions of new users. The Islamabad-based startup scored $10.7 million in a seed-extension round, according to Chief Executive Officer Brandon Timinsky. The funding announcement comes a day after the central bank

https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/pakistan-s-fintech-sadapay-raises-funds-ahead-of-mass-rollout
 
Healthtech company MedznMore raises over $11.5m in investment

It is Pakistan’s largest investment in a pre-series A round to date

MedznMore, a tech-based health care company, has raised more than $11.5m in investment in a pre-series A round, according to a press release issued by the company.

It is the largest investment in health tech to date. The company was founded by Babar Lakhani, Asad Khan, and Saad Khawar in 2020.

It is a B2X pharma delivery platform that is transforming healthcare in Pakistan, which is tackling fundamental problems that have persisted for decades in buying medicines and wellness products for consumers and retail pharmacies alike.

“We built MedznMore with the core focus of making quality healthcare affordable and accessible for the 5th largest population in the world. Today we have seven cold chain enabled warehouses in 3 cities and over the course of the year, we will be opening a new city each month, giving us a presence in 9 cities across the country by the end of the year. On the product side we are laser-focused on the user experience for both shopkeepers and consumers, for whom we will be adding new value add services and offerings in the coming months,” said Co-founder Babar Lakhani

The start-up works directly with pharmaceutical companies and authorized distributors to sell products at competitive prices. It also ensures that medicines are always available to pharmacies and consumers by doing same day and next day deliveries.

“In a market of over 220m people, where public healthcare spending is only 1.2% of GDP, and where 55% of all healthcare spending is out-of-pocket, people generally rely on medicines to alleviate their suffering rather than spend on unaffordable medical procedures. Ensuring the accessibility of affordable and authentic medicines is essential. At MedznMore our aim is to make health and wellness products available in all corners of the country,” said Co-founder Asad Khan.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2356260/healthtech-company-medznmore-raises-over-115m-in-investment
 
Pakistan would surpass its $3 billion Information Technology exports target this year due to the steps taken to boost them, Minister for IT and Telecommunications Syed Amin-ul-Haque said on Monday.

The minister made the remarks while addressing a graduation ceremony held at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

Haque added that IT exports had crossed $2.1 billion mark due to the congenial investment atmosphere provided for the same.

He noted that investments by Pakistani start-ups had grown almost five times as compared to the year 2020 and that the ministry had been providing local and global networking platforms to the start-ups through Ignite, the national technology fund.

The initiative, he added, had been helping the start-ups pitch their ideas and products to their potential customers and investors.

Haque advocated for technology's role to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the country.

"The National Incubation Centers (NIC) in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta have not only facilitated many to work and build on ideas which promote and encourage the investment infrastructure in Pakistan, but also ensured an accelerated economy," he added.

“These centers, are the platforms and the ministry is the facilitator.”

The minister expressed confidence that the newly established incubation centers of Hyderabad and Faisalabad would help tap the potential of Sindh and Punjab, saying the government aspired to provide the youth to bring their ideas into reality.

Other speakers also encouraged the entrepreneurs to continue on the path of innovation and reaffirmed the support of the government in their endeavours.

Later, the minister was introduced to the NIC Lahore alumni, followed by his visit to different parts of the institution including a state-of-the-art Makers Lab.

LUMS Vice Chancellor Dr Arshad Ahmad, Ignite CEO, Asim Shahryar Husain, NITB Executive Director and Board of Ignite Chairman, Syed Husnain Abbas Kazmi and other officials were also present on the occasion.

Express Tribune
 
Not good news this....

==

The start-up ecosystem in Pakistan had a tumultuous day on Thursday with at least three notable players announcing service suspension, rollbacks and layoffs.

Citing shifting economic conditions, prominent ride-hailing service Careem said it has suspended its food service in Pakistan. An official statement said the move will help the company focus on serving its customers’ needs for ride-hailing and delivery segments instead. It vowed to “look to restart the service again” whenever the “economic condition” becomes more favourable.

The company laid off only one person while the rest were accommodated in the mobility segment, a spokesperson for Careem told Dawn in a phone interview. The company remains committed to ride-hailing and (non-food) delivery services, they said.

Swvl stops intra-city bus service; Careem suspends food delivery

The official statement didn’t mention exactly which “economic” indicators led the company to suspend its food service. Referring to elusive reasons like the global recession, the spokesperson said the company can’t “burn cash” on the food delivery service that it started in 2019. They refused to say whether Careem operations have hit breakeven in Pakistan.

Uber acquired Careem in 2020. According to Crunchbase, a prospecting platform for dealmakers, Careem has raised a total of $771.7 million in seven funding rounds.

Separately, app-based bus service Swvl also said on Thursday it’s “pausing” its service in Karachi, Lahore Islamabad and Faisalabad June 3 onwards because of the “global economic downturn”.

However, it’ll continue operating its inter-city buses along with Swvl Business, which is its business-to-business segment.

Responding to a poll on Dawn.com, more than half of the 1,140 respondents said they’ll be affected by Swvl’s decision to suspend its intra-city bus service. Previously, another bus-hailing service, Airlift, shifted the focus of its business from transport to grocery delivery during the pandemic.

Truck It In announces layoffs

Meanwhile, app-based freight management start-up Truck It In said in a blog post on its website on Wednesday the “global economic uncertainty” is forcing it to “recalibrate” its strategy. Insisting that the company is “wholly committed” to serving shippers and truckers in a “leaner” way, it said some of its colleagues will be moving on to “solve other challenges”.

The company will provide the affected work force with “generous severance packages” and help find alternate employment opportunities, it said.

The company raised $13m in seed funding in February and called it the largest in the trucking space in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan region. The last round brought the total raised capital by the company to $17.5m.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2022
 
The information technology (IT) industry has refuted the claims of the government that the country’s IT exports were on a growth path and instead said Pakistan will miss the export target by around $1 billion in the outgoing fiscal year.

The report titled “Why the planned growth was not achieved” was finalised by Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITeS (P@SHA). It highlighted five reasons for restricting its upward movement, which include the establishment of the Special Technology Zone Authority (STZA).

The report, set to be launched next week, has criticised the government for establishing the STZA, on the grounds that the focus of the STZA has been diluted and not aligned with the IT export growth.

P@SHA has said that there was no stakeholder representation in STZA, despite the fact that the Authority was launched in January this year, yet these tech zones have not been enabled for the existing IT and IT-enabling services industry (ITeS).

The P@SHA report, also to be presented to the Ministry of IT, has said that the overall growth in the IT/ITeS industry was still present but the data shows the growth rate trend has declined during 2021-22.

“The only change this year from last year is the change in the tax regime, which has affected the potential growth,” the report said, “During 2020-21 there was 47 per cent growth in IT/ITeS industry, and if the same trend was followed the IT industry would have crossed the target of $3.5 billion for the current fiscal year.

The IT and ITeS exports in the last fiscal year were $2.1bn, and the target for 2021-22 was set at $3.5bn, the industry has estimated that the exports by June 30, 2022 will be limited to $2.6bn only.

The reasons highlighted by P@SHA are changes in the tax regime.

It has been highlighted that tax exemption was the only incentive given to the IT/ITeS industry and was committed till 2025.

In 2021, it was changed to a controversial tax credit regime without consulting the industry and ministries of IT.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2022
 
Blockchain is a ledger of decentralized data that enables transactional data from multiple sources to be collected, integrated, and shared with ease. By using this single-source network, businesses can reduce the cost of conducting reliable business transactions between organizations.

Since blockchain is receiving much of a hype in Pakistan, it’s not easy for individuals to understand this network without some basic knowledge of how this system operates.

To solve this problem a young Pakistani Startup ‘Anmol Network’ has come to the rescue, as it launches its ‘No-Code Builder For Web3’ that will bring connectivity for general users to the blockchain space without any prior knowledge of coding.

Is Web3 “Just a Passing Fad”?

I’m sure that if you’ve gone online recently you have seen something about Web3 or cryptocurrency. Web3 is a blockchain-based version of the World Wide Web that integrates decentralization and a token-based economy.

Some analysts say Web3 will boost consumer data security, scalability, and privacy. Many blockchain enthusiasts believe that Web3 will fight big tech and bring more opportunity and equality within the global financial infrastructure.

In the last few years, major brands such as Paypal, Nike, Venmo, and even Wal-Mart are all joining in the blockchain craze. So what does all of this mean for you? Well, you can either be a part of the transition to Web3 or sit by and watch things unfold.

As with all new technologies, Web3 needs to complete the stages of mass adoption, before the future of the internet can truly become formidable in the present.

If We Build It, They Will Come

“Building The Future of The Internet” sounds like a feat that involves a lot of people with engineering degrees, but the truth of the matter is that just like web builders and social media enabled users to build and become a part of Web2, there is a way for any user, brand or business to stake their claim in Web3 with No Coding Skills Required.

Let us introduce to you, Anmol Network: “The Ultimate No-Code Builder For Web3”, focused on ease of use and accessibility.

ADVERTISEMENT

Functioning like a WordPress or Canva for every facet of blockchain technology, Anmol empowers everyday internet users, small or large businesses, and developers to participate in the blockchain space, and build Web3 micro-projects with simple, easy-to-use applications at a nominal transaction cost and with no need to have development skills.

Anmol offers tools for NFTs, metaverse, GameFi, and DeFi, as well as social tools that bring the connectivity and engagements of social networks to the blockchain space.

Whether a user wants a new audited token with customized vesting, a DAO, a generative art NFT project of thousands, or even millions of NFTS, this and much more can happen in minutes using Anmol’s Web3 Builder and decentralized applications (DApps).

Given the need for scalability to foster mass adoption, Anmol Network is proud to partner with Polygon Technologies, the leading Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development platform.

Anmol’s tools are premiering their launch on Polygon, while developing for deployment on their native chain, and many other chains such as BSC, Solana, Tezos, Flow, and more.

We Are On Time To Catch The Web3 Wave

If we look back at the birth of the new technologies of our generations, many of us look back in retrospect and wonder why we didn’t act sooner. We question why we didn’t come up with the idea for Amazon, Facebook or Twitter ourselves.

We contemplate what would have happened if we would have bought Tesla or Netflix stock when it first entered the market, or how much we could have made from acquiring and reselling popular domain names when they first came out.

The good news is, that Web3 is just at the beginning of mass adoption, and there is still plenty of time to get your foot in the door and become a Web3 creator, as opposed to a Web3 observer or user.

Anmol Network is heavily focused on facilitating integrations, providing use-cases, and supporting the transition to Web3 for non-blockchain establishments such as Schools, Museums, Galleries, and Event Arenas.

At the forefront of Anmol’s recent integrations is a partnership withThe Theatre of Digital Art in Dubai. Residents and tourists of Dubai will enjoy the AI-driven music visualization together with human creativity powered by Anmol Network! Register for this night of Ambient, Advanced Generative Art, and NFT here.

https://propakistani.pk/2022/06/17/...-anmol-network-launches-no-code-web3-builder/
 
Confronting the national and international economic crises, Pakistan’s booming startups have secured investments in first half of 2022 better than the previous year.

Investments in second quarter of 2022 has been recorded at over $103 million, taking first half of 2022 funding to around $280 million, 75% of approximately $375 million recorded in entire 2021, according to data gathered by Pakistani startup funding advisory company Alpha Beta Core (ABCore).

“Despite headwinds of global economic downturn, 2022 has so far proved to be a pivotal year for Pakistan startups, as investments in Q2 2022 were recorded at over $103 million, making the total of 1H22 funding at $280 million or 75% of the total $375 million recorded in entire 2021,” ABCore CEO Khurram Schehzad said.

With a total of 14 deals, the value of deals in second quarter of 2022 is only 5%, lower than first quarter of 2021. Series A and B funding rounds reached an average deal size of $19 million, while early-stage deals showed a decline in deal value, data shows.

Key highlights in second quarter of 2022 were e-commerce accounting for 29%, followed by fintech, healthtech and transportation. Similarly, agritech, edtech and supply chain also scored their fair share in second quarter deals.

Financial freedom is something Pakistanis has been deprived of and fintech companies have been filling up this gap with the help of partner companies getting onboard, said Abhi Pvt Ltd CEO Omair Ansari.

“As fintech has been solving real monetary issues amidst rising inflation and growing anxiety, it will fetch more investment and will be getting more traction in the years to come.”

Seed level funding rounds accounted for 43% of the total, whereas the average deal size in second quarter of 2022 stood at $7.3 million, versus $14 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Top deals were Dastgyr at $37 million, Abhi Finance $17 million, MedznMore $11.5 million, followed by SadaPay and Bykea with $10.7 million and $10 million, respectively.

“Pakistani startups were working fabulously, bringing in record-breaking investment and creating a sensation whilst blazing their trail,” Si global CEO Noman Ahmed Said told The Express Tribune.

However, startup funding is now at risk, due to multiple reasons such as downside risk, tempered growth expectations and investments, rising inflation, increased oil prices, dollar appreciation, and lack of consistency in the policies.

When interest rates were low and liquidity was high, venture capitalists were excited about growth at all costs, leading to rapid valuations for startups and the boom that we all experienced over the last few years, he said. The global community was encouraging technopreneurship, focusing on refining entrepreneurship, investments and social innovation which has helped startups raise $70 million since January 2021.

There is a need to support and create consistency and compliance on a priority basis to help Startups survive, SI global CEO said. It was profitable even the onset of Covid-19 outbreak, now it is the time to devise strategies that can help Startups to grow with consistency and increased profitability.

Mobile manufacturers have already started layoffs. If adequate measures are not taken then technology sector too will be following the same pursuit. In fact, some of them have already started layoffs as businesses and opportunities are shrinking, he predicted.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2022.
 
After Swvl and VavaCars, Airlift — a bus service that later pivoted to the last-mile delivery segment — has announced the permanent closure of its operations in Pakistan, shaking the already wobbly start-up market of the country.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the firm pegged global recession and the recent downturn in capital markets as the key reasons for the shutdown, claiming that economic activity across the board had a “devastating impact” on its business, forcing it to suspend operations on July 12.

“This has been an extremely taxing decision that impacts a large set of stakeholders and an emerging technology ecosystem,” stated Airlift, whose statement also contained several other reasons explaining its untimely demise.

The announcement, unfortunately, does not come as a shock, especially given the economic distress Pakistan has been in for the past few months.

The country’s start-up ecosystem is currently suffering from the tremors of skyrocketing fuel prices, global recession, uncertainty on the local front, limited foreign investment, and difficulty in finding sponsors, forcing firms to scale down operations, lay off employees, and service rollbacks.

Careem, Swvl, VavaCars, and Truck It In are some of the companies that have done this in recent times. As for Airlift, ominous signs were already present long before the final bomb dropped.

The company, referred to by the media as the “poster-child” of Pakistan’s start-up scene, was launched in 2019 with a mass-transit service. The year that birthed Airlift also birthed the Covid-19, which forced people across the world indoors.

So what does a firm formed on the premise of moving people do when there are no people to carry? Sensing an opportunity, the firm shifted gears to quick commerce (or q-commerce) the following year. It provided delivery services through which users could order groceries, fresh produce and other essential items, including medicines from the Airlift website or app and have it delivered to their doorsteps —all within 30 minutes.

According to start-up data portal Crunchbase, the company raised $85 million in the country’s largest Series B funding round — the second round of funding for a company that has met certain milestones and is past the initial start-up stage — in August last year. The amount was the highest for any Pakistani start-up.

It added that the company had raised a total of $109.2m in six rounds, with Future Positive and Moving Capital among its most recent investors.

However, the model that proved to be quite successful during Covid, lost its charm once the virus started to wane.

So how did things go wrong?

Wrong place, wrong time?
Ali Meruani, the co-founder and chief operating officer of GoLootlo — a QR-based discount app — told Dawn.com that despite popular opinion, more money does not necessarily guarantee successful businesses. “There are multi-billion-dollar companies that have gone bankrupt.”

When you invest in a start-up, he said, there’s never any guarantee of returns. “In this environment, not everything is a success. You need to take calculated risks, which also mean failures.”

Meruani explained that the quick commerce model Airlift operated on during the coronavirus lockdown proved to be a success — initially.

Under a q-commerce model, a network of warehouses is set up only to hold inventory to serve a large number of customers across locations quickly. But maintaining inventory is a costly endeavour, and global consulting firm McKinsey estimates the costs of warehousing at 300 billion euros a year worldwide.

“During the lockdown, the assumption was that this [quick commerce] model would persist,” the GoLootlo COO said. “But then [after the lockdowns eased] supply chain costs and inflation increased, forcing consumers to cut down their discretionary spending. So, a consumer preferred to go to a grocery store in his locality instead of spending Rs100 on delivery [charges] from an app.”

He said the trends extended globally. "Food delivery companies across the world have suffered heavy losses. And this is exactly what happened with Airlift too."

“The company didn’t have the runway. They needed money in this environment but failed to raise it,” he said, adding that a company as fast-growing as Airlift was just "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

According to Faiz Ul Haq, head of media and marketing at the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Airlift’s collapse could be explained by the company not expanding its tech infrastructure.

“The company did not swiftly deploy the funding to where it belongs i.e. expansion of tech infrastructure; flexing the footprint to reach untapped potential for first-mover-advantage and the development of the human resource,” he outlined.

Meanwhile, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) head Ahad Nazir told Dawn.com that Airlift lost its market to small suppliers that were better when it came to the availability and quality of the service.

"The company couldn't cater to smaller markets such as people living in Bahria Town. This opportunity was seized by local general stores that developed apps and replicated Airlift's model," he pointed out.

So what's Pakistan’s start-up scene like?
Despite battering inflation, Covid lockdowns, high energy prices, and supply chain shock over the past few years, Pakistan’s start-up market has seen exponential growth, proving to be a silver lining for the country.

According to Invest2Innovate, a local consultancy firm, in 2021 alone, 83 start-ups in the country successfully raised $350m, while so far this year, the sector has already raised $136m.

The five largest disclosed startup funding rounds in 2021 were: Airlift ($85m), Bazaar ($30m), Tajir ($17m), Qisstpay ($15m), and TAG ($12m).

A report published by Al-Jazeera earlier highlighted that Pakistan was among the final few untapped markets for start-ups and investors to offer internet-based services like those in other countries such as ride-hailing, food, and grocery delivery.

Atif Zafar, research head at Topline Securities, agrees. He told Dawn.com that Pakistan had seen significant growth in the start-up market despite being late to the party.

“Even today, the number of start-ups as compared to our population’s demographics is pretty low which means that there is ample potential in the market,” he said.

However, Zafar cautioned that where there is the gleam of great power and success, the shadows of steep falls and losses lurk. “Across the world, the success rate of start-ups is very low with 1 out of 100 being successful.”

Economic crises leading to cash burns and low investments are a common phenomenon around the globe. “The world has been there and done that. It is just here in Pakistan that it is happening for the first time.”

GoLootlo’s Meruani concurred. He said that Pakistan still has a relatively small start-up ecosystem, "which is also why we were in a bit of a shock at Airlift’s failure".

“There is no guaranteed success — 90 per cent of start-ups fail. Pushing boundaries means that failure is part of the equation, so we should be comfortable with it,” he pointed out, adding that there are some amazing startups doing great work in the country.

“We should celebrate them and celebrate failures. Running a start-up means you must be resilient, so this is just another bump in the road.”

'Hang in there'
There is a mix of caution and optimism in wake of Airlift’s collapse.

Hasnain Mirza, managing director at tech start-up Expando, said that with the absence of Pakistan’s start-up poster-child and the ongoing economic crisis, there will be hurdles for other companies when it comes to investment. “It would be difficult to attract investors and venture capitals after the closure of a unicorn turning start-up.

“I know a couple of ideas that are in the pilot phase and need investment but are facing a lot of bottlenecks because of the current crisis,” he said, warning that this could increase in near future.

Mirza said the Asian market has always had a great potential to test new ideas due to its behaviour of easy adaptation and burgeoning population. “Talking about Pakistan and considering the length and breadth of its population, a figure of even 1.9m grocery stores is a needle in a haystack.”

Despite the potential, the entrepreneur said that the situation had impacted his business as well. “There was the Covid uncertainty initially, then the economy and now start-ups are failing miserably.”

However, GoLootlo’s Meruani believes that the crisis won’t last long. “In the short run, funding will become difficult because of the global recession and political uncertainty. But Pakistan has a lot of potential and investors know this. So, hang in there, we will do just fine.”

On the other hand, SDPI's Nazir highlighted that start-ups had a lot to learn from Airlift's fate. For one, they need to have adoptive and agile models that are not easily replicable. "I feel that incubation centres need to make careful decisions when it comes to funding.

"We also need to realise that the models followed by Bill Gates and Steve Jobs can't be run in Pakistan because our regulatory environment is very different. Start-ups require additional knowledge and examples from local models," he added.

Sahib Dino, another young professional working for Noon, said that with rising fuel prices, cost of business, and depreciating rupee, the digital industry was the best market to dive into.

“We have seen that retail industries are suffering the most because their operational costs have increased, and profits have decreased. And investors will only give you money when you return them double in less time.”

He added that what happened with Airlift was disheartening but also a signal for start-ups to "shift their gears".

Expando's Mirza also had some advice for new start-ups: “Tech comprises just 20 per cent of the start-ups. Do not think that developing an app would create a successful start-up. Come up with multiple plans, both short-term and long-term, iterate them, research, know your audience, closely study the business model, and explore multiple revenue models. This is the only way you can grow and create a successful start-up.”

DAWN
 
Food delivery company Jovi suspends operations across Pakistan
After the shut down of many start-ups, Jovi, a food delivery service, announced on Thursday that it is temporarily suspending its operations in the country.

A small meal delivery service called Jovi revealed on Thursday that it is temporarily stopping service in the nation. The business announced in a press release that it is ceasing operations because of Pakistan’s ambiguous political and socio-economic situation, which is causing a choppy market and excessive prices.

However, the company said that it would be coming back soon with the latest and more innovative features.

A press release confirmed Jovi shutting down its services
“We would further like to reassure you that any news on any social media platform regarding our permanent closure of services is not accurate. Our professional and technical teams are working day and night to enhance your experience for the coming future,” the statement said.

It is pertinent to mention here that recently Airlift, a leader in q-commerce in Pakistan, announced that it is shutting down operations in the country owing to its inability to raise new money.

The firm shut down its operations in second-tier cities like Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Hyderabad and Peshawar a couple of months back. It also sacked almost one-third of its employees to reduce the salary bill.

Back in June, Careem suspended its food service in Pakistan saying that “it will look to restart the service again in the future when the economic condition is more favorable in the country.”

Dukan.pk, an e-commerce startup that lets anyone with a smartphone build a web store, has laid off about 25 per cent of its workforce as startups across the globe adopt austerity measures due to a drying up of VC funding.

According to initial reports, Dukan.pk had been shut down completely but CEO Monis Rahman confirmed to Profit that the startup was very much operational and about 25 per cent workforce had been laid off, as the startup focuses on achieving profitability and decreasing reliance on VC funding.

https://www.globalvillagespace.com/jovi-suspends-operations-across-pakistan/
 
Sequoia backs fintech Dbank in maiden Pakistan investment

Manish Singh
Thu, 28 July 2022 at 12:06 pm

Sequoia, the world’s most influential venture fund, has made its maiden investment in Pakistan, joining a growing list of high profile investors who have backed young firms in the South Asian market in the past one year.

Islamabad-headquartered startup Dbank said on Thursday it has raised $17.6 million in a seed round, the largest in Pakistan, co-led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, the recently unveiled $1 billion fund, and Kleiner Perkins. Brazil’s neobank Nubank, Askari Bank, Rayn also participated in the round, the Pakistani startup said.

Dbank is a fintech startup that will attempt to expand the reach of financial services in a “transparent and friendly” manner in Pakistan, taking on the informal credit system that tends to exploit those in need with exorbitant and unpredictable interest rates, said Tania Aidrus, co-founder of Dbank, in an interview with TechCrunch.

Johan Surani, VP at Sequoia Southeast Asia, said in a statement that Dbank will attempt to “democratize banking,” however the startup wishes to keep its roadmap under wraps for now, Aidrus said.

Nearly half of the population of Pakistan, home to over 220 million people, currently don't have bank accounts. "We want our users to be in control of their money and to make informed choices," said Aidrus.

She has started Dbank with Khurram Jamali, both of whom have studied the challenges the unbanked population faces closely at their previous stint at Google, where they worked on payments rails for the company's Next Billion Users initiative. Aidrus then briefly joined the Government of Pakistan as Chief Digital Officer.

State Bank of Pakistan, the country's central bank, has aggressively explored opportunities in recent years to modernize the nation's payments infrastructure to increase financial inclusion in the country. The country has developed Raast, a real-time payments system, for instant digital transactions and also built NADRA, a digital identify platform.

The central bank has also introduced a new full banking digital license, allowing more players to serve as banks that can take deposits from customers without having to have physical centres. Dbank has applied to become a digital retail bank in Pakistan.

“The reason it is the perfect time to launch a venture like Dbank is that the key building blocks are now in place - Raast, the real-time payment system by State Bank of Pakistan supported by seamless digital identity through NADRA. We have seen the multiplier effect that digital public infrastructure can have on the private sectors’ ability to help move economies from cash to digital," said Jamali in a statement.

Aidrus said Dbank plans to eventually build a customer-centric digital bank in the Pan-Islamic world beginning with Pakistan.

Scores of investors including Tiger Global, Addition and Prosus Ventures have backed Pakistani startups in the past two years in a boost to the local ecosystem. The nation, too, is feeling the pressure of the global market downturn. Airlift, one of Pakistan's most celebrated startups, recently announced it was shutting down following funding crunch.

"Pakistan, the world's fifth most populous nation, has a fast-growing middle class with increasingly sophisticated banking needs. This signals a unique opportunity to build a large, customer-centric bank for millions of people. Dbank is addressing this by taking a digital-native approach to democratize banking and make a broad set of financial services friendly, transparent and thus, accessible for the entire nation. The team behind this is a unique combination of talented people and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia is truly delighted to have the opportunity to be early partners with them," Sequoia Southeast Asia's Surani added in the statement.


https://au.news.yahoo.com/sequoia-backs-fintech-dbank-maiden-020642069.html
 
CarFirst announces shutdown of operations in Pakistan
Says team will remain in place to handle closing of the entity, and to respond to queries from partners and customers throughout the closing period

CarFirst, a Lahore-based startup, has become the latest company in Pakistan to announce shutdown of its operations across the country.

“CarFirst has decided to shut down operations in Pakistan,” read a post on CarFirst's LinkedIn page on Friday. The page also lists 365 employees who have added CarFirst as their employer on the professional networking and career development platform.

“We would like to thank our team, partners and most importantly our customers for their continued support throughout our journey,” it added.

CarFirst said that a team will remain in place to handle closing of the entity, and to respond to queries from partners and customers throughout the closing period.

Launched in late 2016, CarFirst acted as a middleman, buying cars from consumers and selling them to dealers through online auctions: a classic consumer-to-business-to-business model.

The online platform provided car sellers a process to get their cars inspected and sold at a price within an hour, including the processing time for payment. CarFirst’s online auction platform for used cars also offered its App, which provided partners and network of buyers a quick way to find the car they needed.

The shutdown comes amid a rising trend of struggle for some companies in Pakistan with several startups and established businesses announcing either trimming down staff or shutting down verticals.

Earlier in June, barely over eight months after it announced raising $50 million, VavaCars – backed by Dutch energy and commodity trading company Vitol – said that it has shut down operations in Pakistan.

Careem also suspended its food delivery business in Pakistan, as it looked to redirect efforts to its ride-hailing and delivery verticals. The company gained popularity as a ride-hailing app before expanding to become a multi-service platform. While announcing its suspension of the food delivery business, it said it will “look to restart the service again in the future when the economic condition is more favourable”.

Another startup Truck It In, established in August 2020 to make freight movement more efficient by connecting truckers and shippers through its online platform, said it is “recalibrating its strategy” due to which some employees “will be moving on to solve other challenges”.

In July, Airlift Technologies, the posterchild of Pakistan's startup scene that was responsible for the country's largest single private funding round in history, announced it is shutting down operations permanently.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40192559
 
Pakistan’s information technology company, Systems Limited, made history by being the country’s only tech firm to be awarded ‘Forbes Asia’s Best Under A Billion’ for the third time in a row.

Forbes Asia has recently compiled its annual list of the top 200 companies from the Asia-Pacific region with consistent top and bottom-line growth and under $1 billion in revenue.

This list entails 75 returnees that outperformed across all performance indicators and metrics; Systems Limited is among them. This honour sheds light on Systems Limited’s sustainability, innovation, and constant financial and business growth.

Expressing his gratitude for this remarkable achievement, Asif Peer, CEO, and MD at Systems Limited said: “Systems Limited has created a thriving ecosystem that consistently meets outstanding performance metrics. It gives me immense pleasure that Systems Limited is the only IT company hailing from Pakistan that has been recognised by Forbes Asia as Best Under A Billion company three times, consecutively. This great honour is monumental to Systems Limited’s sustainability and consistent growth in all the verticals and segments in which we are excelling.”

He further said, “I’d like to take this moment to thank my leadership and colleagues around the world for their consistently outstanding performance. I extend my gratitude to Forbes for this considerable acknowledgement, which highlights the success of Systems Limited. We are also thankful to our valued global clientele for entrusting us, and we assure you that we will continue this momentum of business excellence by providing innovative solutions across the globe and keep on outperforming in all metrics.”

Other than these prestigious accolades from Forbes, Systems Limited also won the 2021 Poll of Asia’s Outstanding Companies by Asia Money in two categories. The company also holds the title of Pakistan’s top IT exporter and has been awarded the prestigious Microsoft Inner Circle for Business Applications 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 membership.

With its recent Forbes Asia’s Best Under A Billion 2022 award, the company solidifies its position as a leading SI company across the globe.
 
Pakistani e-commerce platform PriceOye.pk has raised $7.9 million in a seed funding round led by US-based JAM Fund, it emerged on Tuesday.

It also brought a number of unicorn founders to its cap table, most notably Peter Thiel who founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies — making it his first investment in Pakistan.

Beenext, an early investor in Indonesian e-commerce platform Tokopedia, DG Daiwa, Mantis VC, HOF Capital, Jet.com’s investor Palm Drive Capital, Atlas Ventures, Immad Akhud of Mercury Bank and Asif Keshodia of Souq also participated in the seed funding round, in addition to previous investors Fatima Gobi Ventures, SOSV, and Artistic Ventures.

“PriceOye is a managed marketplace for electronics, with recommendations based on the consumer’s requirements, helping them make informed purchasing decisions. The product recommendation engine is used by visitors for product research and has been one of the important drivers of bringing over two million monthly users to PriceOye.pk’s platform,” a press statement said.

The startup, founded by Adnan Shaffi and Adeel Shaffi, claims to have achieved 500 per cent revenue growth year-on-year and plans to continue on this trajectory by adding new products and categories on the platform as well as expanding its partner network.

“Some of the biggest problems with shopping for consumer electronics in Pakistan is the presence of counterfeit products and price discrepancies which result in a fractured buying experience for a majority of Pakistani shoppers. PriceOye’s managed marketplace not only gives access to authentic products at great prices but also helps consumers make better shopping decisions through its recommendations system,” Adnan Shaffi, co-founder and CEO of PriceOye, was quoted as saying in the statement.

“PriceOye was hence designed to bring transparency and convenience to the shopping experience and has the highest net promoter score, which measures customer experience and loyalty. As we plan for the next phase of our growth, we are excited to partner with new investors who have placed their trust in us,” he added.

Mantis VC founder and partner Alex Pall added, “Within a short period of time, PriceOye has grown exponentially and has cemented its position as the leading national company in online consumer electronics. We are excited to join PriceOye in its mission towards changing the way people shop in Pakistan.”

Commenting on the investment, Seamon Chan, managing partner of Palm Drive Capital, which has backed e-commerce unicorn Jet.com, stated, “It’s always a difficult choice for consumers to spend big amounts of money on high-value products while being unsure about their authenticity. I was inspired by the vision of PriceOye founders Adnan and Adeel of creating transparency and bringing convenience to customers when it comes to shopping for consumer electronics.”

According to the press statement, there is currently no national chain in Pakistan like BestBuy in the US or Croma in India, which are specialised electronics stores. “About 50pc of consumer electronics are sold online in the US, whereas in the Pakistani market, which is mostly offline, the shopping experience for customers is completely fragmented.”

Pakistan’s consumer electronics market had an estimated spend of $8.5 billion in 2020 and has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 7.1pc between 2016 and 2020, it added.

DAWN
 
Neem, an embedded finance platform based in Karachi, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round from local and global investors.

In a press release, the platform said the funding would “further its mission of bringing financial wellness to Pakistan’s underbanked communities — both individuals and businesses”.

Embedded finance companies are technology firms that integrate financial services traditionally offered by banks into the product portfolio of non-financial entities.

Neem was cofounded by Nadeem Shaikh, Vladimira Briestenska and Naeem Zamindar.

According to the press release, SparkLabs Fintech, Arif Habib Ltd, Cordoba Logistics & Ventures Ltd, Taarah Ventures, My Asia VC, Concept Vines, Building Capital, partners at Outrun Ventures and strategic angels as CSO of tech house BPC, founding partner at Mentors Fund, as well as fintech veteran and ex-CEO of Seccl and others participated in the seed funding round.

Talking about the company’s aims, cofounder Shaikh explained, “The embedded finance revolution that is taking place globally in financial services is about democratisation, personalisation and access to products and services at the point of experience. At Neem, we aim to provide solutions to customers when and where they need them.”

Neem believes in a financial wellness model that includes giving individuals and businesses control through payments, addressing their needs through credit, absorbing risk through access to insurance, and providing financial freedom through savings and investments, the press release stated.

The company’s platform offers two core options — a Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform and a lending platform. The former facilitates partners in embedding wallets and payments and offering customised insurance and savings plans while the latter allows partners to provide tailored lending products for both consumers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Arif Habib Limited CEO Shahid Ali Habib, while commenting on the development, said, “We are really excited about our investment in Neem which is looking to transform the financial landscape in the country.

“We strongly believe in Neem’s ability as a leading embedded finance platform to drive financial inclusion in Pakistan which aligns well with the core values of Arif Habib Group.”
 
Startup funding drops 46.2pc to $55.4m

KARACHI: Pakistani start-ups raised a total of $55.4 million in 18 deals in the July-September quarter, down 46.2 per cent from the preceding quarter when the flows amounted to $102.9m.

Statistics compiled by Data Darbar, a website that tracks investment flows into the country’s tech ecosystem, shows the average ticket size remained $4.6m in July-September versus $4.9m a quarter ago.

“Besides a global slowdown in start-up investments amid uncertain macros and a change in monetary stance, there’ve also been spill-overs from the closure of a star start-up (Airlift) as well as fraud allegations against a fintech (TAG),” Data Darbar co-founder Mutaher Khan told Dawn in an interview on Saturday.

Pakistan’s startup ecosystem has been in financial turmoil. Heavily funded instant delivery service provider Airlift shut down altogether while players like Careem, Swvl, Truck It In, VavaCars and others have laid off employees and rolled back services.

“Such bad news along with Pakistan’s economic situation has increased our country risk premium. Getting good valuations has become a lot more challenging of late,” he added.

The year-on-year decline in startup funding in the latest quarter was more pronounced (68.3pc). Both the total size of funding and the number of deals in July-September were the lowest since the first quarter of 2022.

The latest three-month period was dominated by the fin-tech sector, which cumulatively raised $35.85m across eight deals. The second major sector was e-commerce where start-ups attracted $18.9m in five deals.

The top five rounds in July-September were conducted by fin-tech DBank ($17.6m), fin-tech OneLoad ($11m), ecommerce start-up PriceOye ($7.9m), ecommerce start-up 24seven.pk ($6m) and ecommerce start-up DealCart ($4.5m).

Venture capitalists-backed start-ups are struggling to find new funding for rapid customer acquisition. VCs aren’t willing to write blank cheques anymore to help start-ups acquire new customers at a heavy price. Investors are asking entrepreneurs to hit early break-evens instead of focusing solely on revenue mobilisation.

Stage-wise, start-ups raised $9.8m in six pre-seed rounds, $28m in four seed rounds, $6m in two pre-Series A rounds and $11m in a single Series A round during the latest three-month period.

One female founded business managed to raise $0.5m while four deals by female co-founded businesses pulled in $20.1m in July-September.

The total number of investors in the three-month period was 52 versus 81 in the preceding quarter, data showed.

Mr Khan expects a further slowdown in start-up funding as many of the delayed rounds have already been reflected in the latest numbers. “While investors continue to have significant dry powder, many of them are hesitating from deploying any capital and can afford to wait for one to two quarters,” he said.

There’re also early signs of consolidation. Excluding Cloudways, as many as three merger-and-acquisition deals — Emerce.pk by Bagallery, NexDegree by Venture Dive, and Call Courier by PostEx — took place in the latest quarter. None of these disclosed the size of the deal though.

“The trend of consolidation is likely to continue,” Mr Khan said.

DAWN
 
In a bid to facilitate the startups and non-profit organisations in Pakistan, Asia-Pacific and North America, US tech giant Google is launching a circular economy startup accelerator.

The programme — Google for Startups Accelerator: Circular Economy — will select organisations that use technology to solve circularity challenges including reuse, refill, recycling, composting, fashion, food, safe and circular materials, and the built environment.

Asia-Pacific, which is the world's most vulnerable region to climate change’s impact, is a good starting point to innovate and create circular economy solutions.

Only ten rivers contribute 90% of all river-borne plastic in the ocean, eight of which are in APAC. By 2040, Asia is expected to account for 40% of global consumption.

In 2022, the global demand for resources is projected to be 1.75 times what the earth’s ecosystems can regenerate in a year. And most of the resources that we extract and use eventually become waste — adding to more than 2 billion tonnes of solid waste created each year.

The programme hopes to support startups that will help create a circular economy that is safer, sustainable, and more equitable for everyone, which will rebuild a relationship with physical resources and solve circularity challenges.

Through a mix of one-to-one and one-to-many learning sessions, the accelerator offers ten weeks of virtual programming that includes technical assistance and mentoring from Google engineers and external experts.

Participants will also be assigned a dedicated success manager for support that is specific to their organisation.

The applications for this programme are open from October 4, 2022, to November 14, 2022, and the programme will commence in February 2023.

TheNews
 
‘Pakistan fastest growing market for YouTube’

KARACHI: YouTube Pakistan brought out the big guns on Thursday evening for its maiden Brandcast — a loud show of song and dance with hundreds of young content creators gathered under one roof to dazzle the deep-pocketed advertisers of the country’s “No. 1 online video and music platform”.

Beginning with a short concert and effusive presentations by popular YouTubers, the event featured what seemed like sales pitches to advertisers by top YouTube officials.

“Pakistan is one of the fastest growing markets for YouTube globally,” said Marc Lefkowitz, company’s director of partner development and management for Asia Pacific.

As many as 62 per cent of online Pakistanis between the ages of 18 and 24 reported watching YouTube at least once a month, he said. Citing a study conducted by parent company Google and research firm Kantar, he said 78pc of internet users in Pakistan said YouTube was the video platform they went to when they wanted to watch shows and online content.

The same study showed 76pc of internet users believed YouTube helped them “learn something new”. Three-quarters of internet users claimed the video platform carried content that helped them “dig deeper into their interests”.

In a separate interaction with reporters after the event, Mr Lefkowitz said the number of YouTube channels making Rs1 million or more in revenue has gone up 110pc on a year-on-year basis. There’re currently more than 5,400 YouTube channels with more than 100,000 subscribers in Pakistan, up 35pc on an annual basis. More than 350 of these channels have more than a million subscribers.

In his presentation and subsequent talk with the press, Google Country Director Farhan Siddique Qureshi said YouTube has become the centre of modern life as it fulfils educational, professional and entertainment needs of ordinary people, he said.

He urged businesses to capitalise on the “deep connections” that YouTube users have built on the platform to remain at the “top of (their) minds” for achieving a “greater sales uplift”.

A case study shared with the press showed Nestle Fruita Vitals was experiencing low sales in a few cities. It decided to test which advertising channel — TV or YouTube — would yield “efficient results”. YouTube surpassed TV’s reach on the third day, the case study showed. The on-target reach of YouTube versus the TV campaign was three times higher while its cost was 70pc lower, it said.

PR minders of the firm kept hovering over the YouTube representatives during the press briefing in an apparent attempt to stop them from oversharing. Mr Qureshi didn’t state any numbers with respect to the size of YouTube’s business in Pakistan, its earnings, payments to local content creators or taxes.

In response to a question about the perception that local content creators don’t make as much money as their counterparts from other parts of the world, Mr Qureshi said advertising rates are auction-based, not fixed.


DAWN
 
By every measure, 2022 has been a pretty tumultuous year for Pakistan. On the political front, it saw the first vote of no confidence being passed in parliament, removing former prime minister Imran Khan’s government. The massive protests that followed seem to have put an irreparable dent in the establishment’s role and status.

However, all those developments pale in comparison to the economic crisis the country has been reeling through over the last year. Peak inflation in almost two generations and the sharp monetary contraction managed to put a major dent in customers’ and businesses’ pockets. All of this was only made worse by the dilly-dallying resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and the constant talk of default.

For tech startups though, it was the changing global macros more than anything that spoiled the party. After a solid 2021 on the back of a capital frenzy that swept away markets the world over, and record investment of $366 million in Pakistan, there was naturally a lot of optimism for the ecosystem in 2022. And it started on a high note too: local startups raised over $174m in the first quarter. But the US Federal Reserve’s contractionary policy amid high inflation soon caught up and slowed down the venture capital activity.

The cracks first began to appear in the second quarter of 2022, when startups started scaling back their operations and laying off people. That included Airlift, which pulled out of all cities other than Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and let go of 31 per cent of the workforce. Soon after, Swvl, Retailo and Truck It In followed suit. However, the fundraising held up to $104m, still higher compared to the same period last year.

Read: With its posterchild Airlift gone, where is Pakistan’s start-up industry headed?

Come the third quarter and it was almost carnage. Investment plunged 47pc QoQ and 68pc YoY to $55.4m — the lowest since Q1-2021. More than that, the period saw the biggest casualty of the new fundraising environment: Airlift, the most funded Pakistani startup, announced it was shutting all operations after its investors backed out. This was the same company that had first unlocked meaningful capital for the country.

In 2019, it announced a $12m Series A, with participation from First Round, one of the backers of Uber. Then in 2021, it bagged Series B of $85m — an eye-popping amount by local standards.

The post-mortem in the press and social media didn’t give a comforting picture. And to make things far worse, around a similar time, news reports of TAG — a regulated fintech with $17.5m in funding — forging its documents appeared. It raised serious question marks over both the underlying governance at startups and investors’ due diligence process. More importantly, it certainly didn’t induce confidence among foreigners who had very recently started exploring Pakistan as an investment destination.

Whether it was for these high-profile shutdowns, the global macros or our own weakening fundamentals, the pullback was hard to miss. The number of unique investors participating in Pakistani startup deals fell to just 52, the lowest since Q1-2021. And while the current quarter is yet to complete, it makes up for a dismal picture.

Only seven investments (excluding M&A) worth $13.9m have been disclosed so far. If it continues this way, it would be the worst quarter in terms of amount since Q1-2022 and joint lowest by deal count since Q2-2020.

Doomsday?

Based on all this information, it might seem like doomsday for the startup scene.

But there’s hope.

A number of positives have come out for the ecosystem towards the tail end of the year. For example, JS Group announced a partnership with 500 Startups, one of the biggest investors globally — thus unlocking a mix of local and foreign capital. Similarly, Duraid Qureshi of Hum Network and Naveed Sherwani of US-based RapidSilicon launched a $50m Pakistan-focused Katalytic Fund. Moreover, at least three local VCs are in the process of raising their second investment vehicle. All of it should bring in some much-needed liquidity to the market.

That said, most of Pakistan’s inherent issues remain and have raised the country’s risk premium, which is well beyond the control of any founder. The perennial external account troubles are hitting the fan as forex reserves are now not even enough to cover a month of imports. In this uncertain environment, even the more established businesses are struggling to keep afloat and continue daily operations, let alone early-stage startups.

DAWN
 
Pakistan-Based Delivery Startup Trax Raises $3.7 Million in Early Seed Funding Round

Pakistani delivery startup Trax has raised $3.7 million in seed funding in order to capitalize on growth in the South Asian country’s budding e-commerce space, reported Bloomberg.

The round was led by Amaana Capital of the United States and Tricap Investments of the United Arab Emirates.

rax, which was founded in 2017, is one of the pioneering logistics players in Pakistan’s e-commerce sector, and it began when venture capital was almost non-existent in the country. The company makes one million deliveries per month and employs over 2,000 people. To increase financial inclusion in Pakistan, it intends to expand across new business verticals such as fintech.

Pakistan’s startup economy is thriving, with multiple rounds of funding from global venture capitalists taking place this year. Last year, the total investment in startups fell to $347.44 million, down 5 percent from $365.8 million in 2021.

The deal count also declined to 70 during 2022, compared to 84 in 2021, amid a drop in tech valuations that put a slew of startups globally in jeopardy.
2022’s sector-wise breakdown shows that e-commerce led in funding value with $190.27 million raised across 16 deals. The amount was higher than the $174.6 million raised in 2021. Fintech topped the number of deals, raising $100.3 million across 19 deals while the transportation and logistics sector raised $28.1 million.
https://propakistani.pk/2023/03/24/...ises-3-7-million-in-early-seed-funding-round/
 
PatientFirst.AI, a groundbreaking healthcare startup from Pakistan, has emerged victorious in a prestigious Harvard University competition, securing a $75,000 prize for its innovative electronic health record (EHR) platform.

The Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge, which seeks to identify and support cutting-edge startups with the potential for global impact, recognised PatientFirst.AI's vision of revolutionising the healthcare ecosystem for developing nations.

The competition aims to reward startups with innovative solutions to pressing problems and the potential to make a significant impact worldwide. PatientFirst.AI's lightweight, user-friendly EHR platform caught the judges' attention, as it addresses the urgent need for better healthcare record management in developing countries where access to adequate healthcare services remains a critical issue.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/241527...up-clinches-75000-award-at-harvard-university
 
Sarah Qureshi, an alumna of the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), has been granted patents in the United States and Great Britain for a groundbreaking supersonic jet engine. Sarah, who graduated from the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (CEME) in 2000, co-invented the engine alongside her father, Masood Latif Qureshi.

The invention represents a significant milestone in the field of aviation, as it not only complies with current aircraft noise standards but also delivers exceptional performance during flight.

The patent grants serve as a testament to Sarah Qureshi’s innovation and expertise in the aerospace industry. As the CEO of Aero Engine Craft, she has been a driving force behind the development of this remarkable engine. The novel supersonic jet engine promises to revolutionize the future of aviation, pushing boundaries and unlocking new possibilities for high-speed travel.

One of the primary challenges faced by supersonic aircraft has been the issue of excessive noise generation, which led to restrictions and limitations on their usage. However, Sarah and her father’s invention successfully addresses this concern by complying with existing noise regulations. The engine’s advanced design ensures a significant reduction in noise levels, making it compatible with current aircraft noise standards.

Furthermore, the supersonic engine doesn’t compromise on performance. It offers outstanding capabilities during flight, enabling enhanced speed and efficiency. This breakthrough has the potential to transform the aviation industry, opening up a new era of supersonic travel that combines both speed and sustainability.

Speaking about her accomplishment, Sarah Qureshi expressed her gratitude to NUST for providing her with a strong foundation in engineering. She credited her alma mater for nurturing her passion for innovation and enabling her to pursue her dreams. Sarah also emphasized the importance of collaboration and the crucial role her father played in co-inventing the supersonic engine.

The news of Sarah Qureshi’s patent grants has been met with widespread acclaim and excitement within the aviation community. Experts are lauding the achievement as a significant step forward in supersonic technology and are eager to witness the potential impact it will have on the future of air travel.

The CEO of NUST commended Sarah Qureshi for her remarkable achievement, noting that it serves as a testament to the university’s commitment to fostering groundbreaking research and innovation among its students.

NUST takes pride in the accomplishments of its alumni, and Sarah’s success reflects the institution’s dedication to producing exceptional individuals who make a positive impact on society.

https://startuppakistan.com.pk/supe...e-sarah-qureshi-granted-patents-in-us-and-gb/
 
Sarah Qureshi, an alumna of the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), has been granted patents in the United States and Great Britain for a groundbreaking supersonic jet engine. Sarah, who graduated from the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (CEME) in 2000, co-invented the engine alongside her father, Masood Latif Qureshi.

The invention represents a significant milestone in the field of aviation, as it not only complies with current aircraft noise standards but also delivers exceptional performance during flight.

…..

https://startuppakistan.com.pk/supe...e-sarah-qureshi-granted-patents-in-us-and-gb/

What a story! What an inspiration for women in SC! Hats off!!
 
Back
Top