Pakistan Startup News and Updates

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Pakistani startup Bazaar raises another $70m in Series B financing as total funding reaches $107.8m​

Mutaher KhanPublished March 15, 2022

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Bazaar, a B2B marketplace from Pakistan, has raised $70million in a Series B round led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global Management, according to a press release issued by the company.

The latest funding comes only six months after the company announced a $30m Series A in August 2021, bringing the total funding secured to date to $107.8m across four rounds since February 2020.

Investors, including Indus Valley Capital, Defy.vc, Acrew Capital, Wavemaker Partners, B&Y Venture Partners and Zayn Capital also participated in the latest deal.

Founded in June 2020 by Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, Bazaar provides procurement, fulfillment, operating software, digital lending and supply chain products to merchants and suppliers in Pakistan.

“We are humbled and excited to continue on the path to creating a generation-defining story for Pakistan. With significant backing of two of the largest venture growth funds in the world, we believe this will continue to change the narrative on the country and inspire countless more and bigger stories in near future," say founders of the platform.

According to a statement, Bazaar’s mission is to build an operating system for traditional retail in Pakistan. "This retail economy, worth over $170bn, is primarily offline and mostly served through five million SMEs across the country."

The statement added that the merchant base, the lifeline of Pakistan’s economy, also lacked access to formal financial services in a country that hosts the world’s third-largest unbanked population.

"At the same time, Pakistan is undergoing a massive digital penetration wave driven by the widespread availability of affordable smartphones and some of the lowest mobile broadband costs in the world," the company says.

Bazaar says it aims to "capitalise on these fundamentals by building an integrated platform of B2B offerings that can aggregate, digitise, and finance the country’s fragmented retail landscape".

“We are thrilled to support Bazaar’s vision of building an end-to-end commerce and fintech platform for millions of unbanked and offline merchants in Pakistan”, said Christian Jensen, Partner at Dragoneer Investment Group.

“Bazaar’s pace of geographic expansion and new product development is a testament to the rare talent and culture Hamza and Saad have cultivated at Bazaar.”

Bazaar’s B2B e-commerce marketplace is now servicing 21 towns and cities across Pakistan, covering 30 per cent of Pakistan’s population through more than a dozen functional fulfillment facilities.

The platform is adding three to four new cities and towns to its last-mile network every month, putting it on course to establish the country's largest tech-enabled footprint by the end of the year, the statement says.

The statement said the mobile application had on-boarded over 2.4m businesses across 500 cities and towns in the country, recording over $10bn in annualised bookkeeping transaction value.

The company said it also recently launched Bazaar Credit, a short-term working capital financing product, which provided liquidity to its largely unbanked merchant base.

“To date, Bazaar has provided thousands of digital loans, with 100pc repayment and significant uplift in merchant buying volumes.”

John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global Management said: “We believe that Pakistan is at an inflection point in its tech ecosystem development. We are excited to back their incredible team and phenomenal growth in such a short span of time."

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@ghazi52 My brother, try to post all the Pakistani startups related news only on this thread. This will make it easier for readers to get all the Pakistani startups related news from a single thread.

 

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Pakistan’s startups take centre stage​

Startups in Pakistan, one of the last untapped frontier markets, raised $486m of global capital since January 2021.

By Alia Chughtai and Marium Ali
Published On 16 Mar 2022

Pakistan’s economy has been battered by rising inflation, COVID, supply chain shocks and high energy prices over the last few years. But in that world of constant shocks, its booming startup sector is turning out to be a silver lining for the country.

In 2021, 83 startups raised $350m according to Invest2Innovate, a Pakistani consultancy firm. And so far this year, the sector has already raised $136m.

Kalsoom Lakhani, the founder of Invest2Innovate and general partner at its sister firm i2iVentures, an early-stage investor, says 2021 was a record-breaking year and says people will question if the momentum is sustainable.

“What’s really important is for the ecosystem to also be building the health overall,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to startups and investors preparing for things such as how to grow the talent pipeline to meet the needs of these fledgling businesses, or how to improve the policy and regulatory environment to help them grow. “So while this momentum is exciting, there needs to be strengthening of these pillars in order to create sustainability and longevity and the continuing growth of the startup ecosystem,” she said.

COVID-19 was a catalyst for the startup landscape in Pakistan, which saw investments rise from $65m in 2020 to $350m in 2021. Extended lockdowns and quarantines provided entrepreneurs the opportunity to create digital products with a human impact.

With more than 250 startups since 2015, an increasing internet penetration driven by low-cost smartphones – there were 184 million cellphone users at the end of 2021 – and affordable data, Pakistan is one of the final few untapped markets for startups and investors to offer internet-based services similar to those in other parts of the world. These services include ride-hailing, and food and grocery delivery, among others.

Faisal Aftab, CEO of Zayn Capital, a venture capital fund and one of the primary investors in the Pakistani startup landscape, estimates that Pakistani startups will be worth $50bn by 2030.

“Today the number sits at $1.8bn, if we count Daraz and FoodPanda, which people should, then we’re sitting at $3bn to $4bn. We’re looking at an easy 10 times growth here,” says Aftab. Daraz, an e-commerce platform, was founded in Pakistan and now offers its services in several countries, and Foodpanda is an international food and grocery delivery business.

“It’s profound what is happening,” says Aftab, referring to the many first-time investors that have mushroomed in the country to pour money into these startups in hopes of handsome returns down the line. Many of these startups straddle parts of the informal economy and will help bring that under the formal economy and the tax net for the first time, he adds.

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

Invest2Innovate’s Pakistan Startup Ecosystem Report 2021 highlights the need for more attention directed towards startups to create a supportive ecosystem in which businesses can flourish.

Opportunities for growth, however, come with the challenge of finding the right human and capital resources to allow the building of infrastructure that can absorb the two million new people entering the workforce every year, the report says.

Infrastructure​

Recent reforms, including a legal framework for Electronic Money Institutions set up by the country’s central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan, have allowed new businesses to be set up and have led to an increase in investments. Another policy that led to investor cheer was the Digital Banking Policy, which was finalised in January and allows digital banks to not just be e-wallets, but also provide credit, investments, and other products.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, which oversees non-banking companies, has established legal definitions for startups, and the federal government has helped set up Special Technology Zones.

Danish Lakhani, founder of NayaPay, a digital wallet still in its testing phase, has been approved to be launched to the mass market by the State Bank of Pakistan after a nine-month pilot and inspection. NayaPay raised $13m in February from primarily local and foreign investors and is the largest funding for fintech in Pakistan.

“As an early electronic money institution, we worked closely with various departments at the State Bank during the evolution of the EMI-licensing process,” Lakhani told Al Jazeera.

Bottlenecks for foreign investors

While the huge injection of money into Pakistan’s struggling economy bodes well for the startup scene, it still faces challenges such as lack of local investors, limited skilled workers, and the gender gap in founders and workers.

According to the i2i investment tracker, angel investors – high net worth individuals who financially back a business usually in return for a share – invested $32m across 14 deals at the pre-seed stage, and $123m across 46 deals at seed stages. The pre-seed stage is when an idea needs enough equity to kick-start operations for an early version of the product. The seed stage is when the company needs to raise funds with an angel investor or institution formally.

However, funding for later stages is an issue that needs to be addressed if companies want to scale and enter new markets. The majority of the early-stage investments are from outside Pakistan. There were 11 local angel investors in 2021 who co-invested in six deals that totalled $6.9m.

While there has been progress by regulatory authorities for startups, there is still a lack of legal framework for foreign companies wanting to buy shares in Pakistani firms.

The government has allowed holding shares for startups to be outside Pakistan, thus helping to push foreign investments. Zayn Capital’s Aftab says companies feel more comfortable knowing they can keep their shares outside of Pakistan because of the lack of faith in its judiciary and legal frameworks.

Furthermore, there is a lack of clarity on taxation laws for venture capitalists, and those wanting to sell their stakes in these startups.

William Bao Bean, a general partner at SOSV – a global venture capital fund with a portfolio of more than a thousand companies and $1.2bn in assets under management – and managing director of Chinaccelerator, is an investor in many startups in Pakistan. He says the regulatory environment, the currency, and the economy does not really matter to him. His company is focusing on the mid to lower-income market in Pakistan and wants to provide services that change lives, he says.

“When you have technology coming in and making a fundamental change to how people live, as they can communicate, they can be entertained, they can have their first love, they can buy insurance for the first time, they can buy their first pair of Nike’s….. people will gravitate towards [those] life-changing services. And there’s not a whole lot you can do to stop it,” he told Al Jazeera.

Lack of local investors and scalability​

There are more international investors than local angel investors – the number of international angel investors grew from 5 in 2015 to 37 in 2021. In comparison, there were 11 local investors in 2021 and 10 in 2018. Additionally, local investor investments totalled up to $6.9m, which was 1.9 percent of the total funds raised at pre-seed and 21.8 percent at the seed stage. International investors, however, made 14 deals totalling $147m.

Skilled workers​

There are not enough skilled staff for senior positions or a trained workforce to meet the needs of the various startups. The availability of quality technical staff, such as software engineers and data scientists, is limited.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Technology and Innovation Report, out of 158 countries, Pakistan ranks 146 in terms of technology and development. Often, competitive startups have the same pool of workers and managers circulating within the same industry.

Universities are not equipped with curriculums that can be beneficial to new businesses or enable students to create their own. As a result, with the limited pool of trained workers, companies end up offering raises to hold on to trained employees. In addition, with foreign funding, salaries are further bumped up, adding to pressure on smaller firms to be able to pay competitive wages to get the right talent.

Founders who have international degrees raised more money than those who graduated from local universities. Invest2Innovate’s data showed that of 80 deals, there was at least one founder in each startup that had an international degree.

Despite the preference given to foreign graduates by investors, senior managers find local graduates have more of a connection with the local market.

“There is a clear preference of wanting to hire international graduates because of how they understand the technology and a foreign degree is a brand,” says a female manager at an e-commerce website who declined to be named for reasons of job security. She’s been working in the startup landscape since 2016 and believes there is a significant difference in the workforce within Pakistan as well, not just with international graduates. Local university graduates between Karachi and Lahore are vastly different in terms of their efficiency, understanding of technology, and willingness to learn.

However, she adds, as a manager in a hiring position, she sees that international graduates create an uneven environment. The socioeconomic class differences in a workplace create an unspoken boundary, which is further amplified by the educational institutions people come from.

The drastic gender gap​

The gender gap in Pakistan is one of the worst in the world, ranking in the bottom three, at 153 out of 156 countries, according to the Global Gender Gap Report.

Female participation is vastly unaccounted for as most of them are unskilled, or unpaid, labour. As for women who are in the formal workforce, their options for growth are limited often because their families aren’t comfortable with them traveling out of the house or to far places or because they have to prioritise taking care of family members and that often means dropping out of the workforce or not taking up roles that require longer hours at work.

However, there is progress as far as women being connected to the internet is concerned. Entrepreneurship has allowed women in urban centres to progress to becoming business owners.

According to Invest2Innovate’s report, gender disparities are prevalent in the startup ecosystem and prevent women-led startups from achieving their full potential. Only 1.4 percent of all investments raised within the past seven years in Pakistan were by solely women-run startups.

Oraan, a fintech startup to help women save money, raised $4m last year, making it the most funded female-led startup. Halima Iqbal, co-founder and chief executive of Oraan says it was difficult to secure funding, but they were glad to have the backers who believe in the problem they are solving.

“A very tiny portion of VC funds in the world go to women-led companies and there is a relatability factor that plays a role in funding,” as most of the investors are male.

Despite Oraan’s success, female-founded startups were disproportionately at a disadvantage as women-led startups received a mere $8m from 2015-2021, compared with female cofounders, who received $138m, and male-led startups received $447m according to the report published by Invest2Innovate.

The female manager mentioned above says in all the years she has worked in startups, there have been very few women in senior positions, with the majority of women limited to human resources or junior executive staff.

“As a senior manager now, I’m often alone in a boardroom with men and despite my confidence, I feel intimidated. I’m also often made to feel that I’m being talked at,” she told Al Jazeera.

NayaPay’s Lakhani says one of the core values at his firm is gender neutrality. “[We have] flexible working options, on-site childcare facilities, training, and growth opportunities are readily available for all our team members. We are partnering with organizations such as CodeGirls which encourage and train women interested in technology roles.”

Despite the progress some companies are making, on-site child care facilities and flexible hours are not the norm yet. Women are still widely left out of the investment networks and mentorship. Support programs need to be bespoke designed for female-founded startups, including legal and financial services, networking development, and access to mobility, stated the insights report.

Shane Shin, of Shorooq Partners, an investment company based in the UAE, says startups in Pakistan are exciting because if they can be scaled to enter Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that’s where companies become worth several billion dollars.

“Pakistan is at the juncture of accepting global capital from the US and Asia, and this is a very rare phenomenon,” says Shin.

 

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Pakistan’s MyTM Raises $6.9 Million Seed Funding
By ProPK Staff | Published Mar 3, 2022 | 7:02 pm

MyTM, the first-ever startup from Pakistan to win the Supernova pitching competition at GITEX Futurestars held in Dubai in October 2021, in the ‘Creative Economy’ category, announced Thursday that it has secured $6.9 million in its seed round.

Investors participated from Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mauritius, the UK, and Pakistan. Notable investors included My Petroleum (My Group), 100 Ventures, Loyal VC, United Seven Hills Venture, and PEX International.

Back in 2019, MyTM had also raised 30 million Yen in its pre-seed round from a Tokyo stock listed company named Rentracks Japan. This makes the total funding raised by MyTM as much as $7.2 million.

Speaking on the occasion, CEO MyTM, Zain Farooq said,

Promoting the Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital Pakistan, this Investment will enable MyTM to acquire an NBFC (non-banking financial company), hire new talent, and create a network of cash-rich agents in the country. Additionally, MyTM will be enabling digital payments providing commerce, financial, and banking services at 6000 locations across Pakistan by Q4 of this year.

MyTM’s banking partner and settlement bank are NRSP Microfinance Bank. To secure this round, Ignite, National Incubation Center Islamabad, and Founder Institute Pakistan have been the key drivers to help MyTM with strategizing its business plan, go-to-market strategy, and validation internationally.

CEO Ignite, Asim Shahryar Husain, stated,

Pakistan is home to the fifth-largest youngest population in the World while having only one bank branch and one ATM for every 15,000 individuals. Hence, it is a great growth opportunity for a fintech startup like MyTM. That is why Ignite sponsored MyTM along with some other NIC startups to connect them with potential customers and investors at GITEX 2021. It’s great to see the results of our efforts now. Ignite will continue sponsoring NIC startups for international startup events in the future to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of Pakistan.

The year 2021 was remarkable for Pakistani startups where investment in Pakistani startups grew by more than 5 times over 2020. 2022 looks even better and the investment forecast for this year is at least $500 million of investment in Pakistani startups by end of the year.

 

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Pakistani startup NayaPay secures $13 million in seed funding​

NayaPay aims to introduce a payment platform to enable P2P interaction in a secure and cost-effective manner. NayaPay attempts to bridge the gap between the consumer and the financial services available to them.

By News Desk
24 February 2022

NayaPay, a Pakistan-based fintech company backed by the Lakson Group, a conglomerate in Pakistan, has secured $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in South Asia.

The seed round was led by angel investors like Zayn Capital, MSA Novo, and Graph Ventures. NayaPay aims to introduce a payment platform to enable P2P interaction in a secure and cost-effective manner. NayaPay attempts to bridge the gap between the consumer and the financial services available to them.

Danish Lakhani, CEO of the company at an event, said that “We at NayaPay hold the firm conviction that Pakistan needs a robust, local payment service that provides similar user conveniences to and has as profound an impact on the transaction economy as those which PayPal, Venmo, AliPay and WeChat Pay have on their native markets.”

In 2018, NayaPay joined hands with Meezan Bank to accelerate their growth, simultaneously boosting Pakistan’s digital transactions, which the local market had still not accepted as a norm, favoring cash or cheques over it.

In 2020 NayaPay partnered up with Visa to fast track cross-border money transfers. The move assisted in international fund transfers, which gained popularity due to the surge in freelancing and related tech exports.

The partnership with Visa also helped NayaPay to leverage its security, capabilities, and reach. In 2021, the Pakistan-based fintech company, after a year-long inspection, earned its EMI (Electronic Money Institution) license from the State Bank of Pakistan, securing its ground as a legitimate fintech company in Pakistan.

Finally, in 2022, the company secured $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in the country. The fintech has also launched its chat-led super app targeted primarily at students and freelancers and is also building a Software as a Service that would offer universal payment acceptance and financial management services.

Pakistan presents a huge market potential for such fintech startups due to its low account penetration rate. Currently, only 82 million adults out of the total of 132 million adults have unique bank accounts, and only 33 percent of the women.

This accounts for a huge market gap and a huge potential for a customer base. Pakistan has also recently witnessed a shift towards the digital mode of payment and a shift from the traditional mode of payment. Section 21 of the Tax Law Ordinance now mandates that payments exceeding 250,000 be made digitally.

This would help reduce the risk of money laundering and reduce grey transactions. Pakistan presents a significant market opportunity for NayaPay as digital transactions recently in FY 2020-21 spiked 31.1 percent, amounting to $500 billion or Rs. 88 trillion, far exceeding the country’s GDP.

Pakistani startups witnessed impressive growth in 2021 as they bagged a whopping $375 million from angel investors and venture capitalists. This is nearly five times more than what startups received in 2020 and twice of what they received in the past six years combined.

Airlift topped the board by securing $85 million, followed by Bazaar, which bagged $30 million. Such ventures are vital as they promote ease of doing business, attract investments, advance equality of opportunity, and inspire a culture of ingenuity in the country.

 

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What’s ahead for Pakistan’s startup?
By Taimoor Hassan | March 16, 2022

Invest2Innovate’s entrepreneurship ecosystem report discusses the challenges mounting for startups

It’s been a little over three months since the year 2022 started and Pakistan’s startups have announced raising investments worth $130 million. Just yesterday, B2B startup Bazaar announced a hefty $70 million raise in Series-B round. The momentum seems to be steady for startups after a joyous year, and as startups enter into a new stage of growth, new challenges mount. A recently launched “Pakistan Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report 2021” by venture capital and insights firm Invest2Innovate (i2i) discusses what these new challenges look like.

According to Kalsoom Lakhani, the co-founder and general partner at i2i, initial challenges for startups were an overall lack of funding, no support space and lack of regulations. “That’s changed now for the better,” says Kalsoom. As the startups enter a new phase of growth, the ecosystem has to worry about new problems that come at this stage. Lack of access to growth stage capital, for instance.

Pakistan had an exceptional last year, with startups collectively raking in $352 million in 2021. This amount is exceptional in a seven year context: since 2015, Pakistan’s startups have in total raised $563.5 million. A multitude of factors explain last year’s boom: Pakistan is the last big untapped market for foreign venture capital investments which peaked globally last year; increasing cell phone and broadband penetration accelerated growth of startups; and foreign educated startup founders moving back to Pakistan helped raise more capital overall.

While the trend has been encouraging, challenges lie ahead in raising later-stage funding for these startups. An overwhelming majority of the startup deals (60 of the 81 total) last year were early-stage investments. The number of deals and the total investment could have been bigger during last year and will pose a challenge ahead because of a limited number of local angel investors and their willingness to invest only small amounts.

For the ones that were able to raise funding in their early stages, follow-on capital is going to be a challenge because of limited capital of local VC funds. These funds and the international VCs that invested in Pakistan are mostly early-stage investors themselves. According to the report, international VCs which are investors did not prefer investing in later stages.

According to the report, the total market capitalization for all Pakistani startups currently lies between an estimated $1.5 billion and $2 billion, and is expected to increase to $6 billion over the next five years and to $30 billion by 2031. There is, however, a correction required as to how Pakistan’s startups are valued. High valuations in Pakistan have been brought about to a large extent by looking at comparables in mature markets, which isn’t a true representation of the actual opportunity in Pakistan.

High valuations have also brought into question the possible exit routes for Pakistan’s startups. The Pakistani stock market in its current state is not going to give startups the valuations they are able to secure during private fundraising.

Interest towards acquisitions is not promising either, with the acquisition of Daraz by AliBaba in 2018 the only instance in the last few years. “Pakistani startup ecosystem thus faces a predicament. Despite a substantial increase in investment activity, there have been few exit events to prove the case for investment outcomes within the Pakistani market. This can potentially discourage VCs, which have an average investment cycle of around five years and a fund duration of usually 10 years, from writing bigger cheques or investing strategically in Pakistan if they are unclear of long-term prospects locally,” the report notes.

Support infrastructure such as startup incubation centers are mostly focused on driving investment into startups, but remain inefficient in doing that. i2i’s interview data shows most dissatisfaction among entrepreneurs who are looking to scale and raise capital with the services currently offered by these support organisations. “For instance, both entrepreneurship support organisation (such as incubation centers) personnel and founders shared that attempts on part of these organisations to help startups raise investment have often not come to fruition either due to investors not following up after a few initial conversations or because they were matched with investors that were not a fit for the founders and vice versa,” the report notes.

Pakistan has a sizable network of support organisations such as startup incubators. Although the availability of a larger number of support programs is a positive sign and indicates greater accessibility of support services to young startups, the report highlights several shortcomings among support services such as the lack of bespoke services for more experienced founders and startups at later stages of their business lifecycle, as well as a noticeable lack of effective investor-readiness elements within local support programs.

The report also highlights that additionally, there is a disconnect between the startup sector and universities which creates challenges for startups. According to the report’s findings, universities in Pakistan do not equip students adequately to launch a business. This can be attributed to why foreign educated founders have been more successful at raising capital than local founders.

Startup growth in part has been fueled by the launch of Electronic Money Institution (EMI) regulations by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and now the Digital Banking Policy 2022, allowing holding companies abroad and setting up of the regulatory sandbox by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s (SECP). In addition, Digital Pakistan Policy, National eCommerce Policy, GEM Board listing and the Special Technology Zones (STZAs) are measures that are seen as significant by ecosystem commentators, regulatory bottlenecks with regards to these measures persist which create problems for startups.

Taxation is a particular point of concern for startups. The report underlines two areas in taxation as points of concern: a lack of clarity in terms of sector specific taxation policies, and concerns around taxation on capital gains in the case of exits. “More sector specific consistency of tax policy, including new and emerging business models and verticals, which have not been looked at from a tax perspective,” Ali Mukhtar of Fatima Gobi Ventures suggests.

From an investment point of view, the current regulatory atmosphere prevents local or international VC funds from soliciting funds from within Pakistan. This limits participation of Pakistani High Networth Individuals, family offices or institutions from participation in the fund and limits avenues of raising money for a Pakistan focus fund. This can eventually put a limit on the availability of capital for future investments into Pakistan’s startups.

Foreign investors have also voiced concerns if they would be able to repatriate their profits in case of an exit. Pakistan has conservative foreign exchange rules with extra controls on outflow of funds from Pakistan and majority of investors, according to the report, believe “a lack of laws allowing for the seamless inflow of foreign investment capital into the country is an obstacle.”

“While the government is making headways in being more receptive to the needs of the key ecosystem players, the SBP still holds a great level of regulatory control (and enforces stringent reporting requirements) on how domestic investors can direct their capital flows to holding companies established abroad. This limits their contribution to the overall growth of the ecosystem and pushes Pakistani startups to rely more on international investors for growth capital. Therefore, the need to ease regulations pertaining to international VCs is more important now than ever, not only to make processes friendlier but also to channel more local liquidity into venture funds,” says Amad Mian, partner at VC firm Karavan surveyed by i2i.

Key stakeholders highlighted that in regards to human capital, while the supply of technical talent in Pakistan is sufficient, it lacks several key attributes such as critical thinking abilities, product-oriented experience, and cross-functional flexibility compared to their counterparts in other regional ecosystems.

The startup sector saw a growth in female participation as well last year. Women-founded startups managed to raise $4 million in 2021 compared to all previous years combined ($3.9 million). The 2021 funding figure, however, is a fraction of that raised by female co-founded startups ($144 million across 43 deals) and male-founded startups ($412 million across 194 deals) from 2015-2021. As a result of this growth, the average ticket size to female-founded startups increased to $2 million in 2021, from $900,000 in 2020.

Female-founded startups account for only 1.4% ($7.91 million /$563 million) of the total amount raised and 6.7% (17/255) of the total deals from 2015 to 2021. Challenges cited by female-founded teams during the investment raising process was finding a suitable investor (with 84% of respondents stating as such). Generally, female founders perceived investment-related challenges as greater in magnitude than those facing female co-founded and male-founded teams.

According to i2i’s Deal Flow Tracker, female-founded startup investment grew from $1.8 million in 2020 to $4 million in 2021. In 2020 female-founded startups accounted for 6.3% of the deal count and 2.8% of the total amount raised compared to 2021 where the deal count and the total amount raised by female-founded startups was 3.6% and 1.1%, respectively. Despite the growth, the relative share of investment in female founded startups is tiny.

According to the report, a limited pipeline of female founded businesses and potential bias in perceptions against women-founded businesses are two major reasons behind lower access to finance for women. It further outlines that women founded businesses represent a low volume of investment worthy female-founded startups which limits the number of deals they can evaluate. According to Ali Mukhtar, the disparity in funding is perhaps because there is a relatively lower pool of female founders applying for VC funding. Low pool of female founders in Pakistan can be attributed to the overall lack of labor force participation of women which stands at 21% compared to 79% male labor force participation. A predominantly male dominated atmosphere limits opportunities for women, the report argues. One way to overcome the lack of female participation in the tech sector is to strengthen support infrastructure for females, such as initiating dedicated programs for women at incubators and accelerators.

 

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Airlift Mafia: Pakistan’s buzziest startup has created a new class of founders​

In a country where corporate jobs have long been considered the only “stable” profession, the success of Airlift is inspiring entrepreneurship.

By ZUHA SIDDIQUI | 14 MARCH 2022

After graduating from college in 2016, Yahya Humayun jumped headfirst into management consulting. He joined Ernst & Young in Lahore as an associate consultant. But within a year, he realized that the job wasn’t the right fit for him. Humayun wanted to do something that was fast-paced, created an impact, and changed lives. His big break came in 2019, when he joined Pakistani e-commerce giant Airlift Technologies as a customer experience optimization executive. “They were solving a huge problem for Pakistan at the time — [they were] solving for mass transit,” Humayun told Rest of World.

From Airlift, he joined two other startups before setting out to launch his own venture, Pattern, an app looking to disrupt the restaurant dine-in and takeaway space, where little innovation has taken place over the years.

Humayun credits his time at Airlift, and the company’s founders, for part of his success. They “inspired me and many others in the growing startup ecosystem in Pakistan, and they have helped our team at Pattern raise a six-figure angel round,” he told Rest of World.

The atmosphere at the Airlift office was inspiring, Humayun recalls. He and his colleagues would talk about solving the next big problem during lunch and coffee breaks. “Back then, there was so much inefficiency in the B2B retail supply chain, and when the pandemic hit, we decided that this was the time to take the plunge and launch Dastgyr,” he told Rest of World. Humayun was an early investor in Dastgyr Technologies.

Humayun is a member of what’s becoming the “Airlift Mafia:” former employees of the Pakistani company that have gone on to launch their own startups. In a country where corporate and management consulting jobs have long been considered the only “stable” job options, the success of Airlift has helped change the destiny of many young professionals. Akin to the “Paypal Mafia” in the U.S., “Airlift Mafia” includes the founders of several prominent Pakistani startups such as Dastgyr (which raised $3.5 million in a seed round in July), agri-tech supply chain startup EasyFresh Technologies (which delivered over 1,000 tons of produce within the first three months of its launch), and inter-city courier service Parcel Logistics, among others.

Founded in 2019, Lahore-headquartered Airlift Technologies is a logistics solutions startup that started out in the mass transit space, building an Uber-like service for public transport with air-conditioned buses instead of cars. When the pandemic struck in March 2020 and Pakistan went under lockdown, Airlift suspended its transit services and pivoted to quick commerce, and it is now in seven other Pakistani cities. In August 2021, Airlift raised $85 million in a Series B funding round, an unheard of amount in the Pakistani startup ecosystem until then. The company’s investors include former Y Combinator president Sam Altman, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and Bain Capital’s co-chairman Steve Pagliuca, among others.

Humayun said that the success of startups like Airlift is one of the reasons entrepreneurship has been thriving in Pakistan in recent years. 2021 was a landmark year for the country’s startup ecosystem, with young ventures raising nearly $365.87 million in funding, a figure greater than all previous years combined.“ Every team member within a startup is an entrepreneur with autonomy. Basically, lots of great people get together, and each person takes responsibility for building something, and that is when [the] magic starts to happen,” Muhammad Mustafa, co-founder of agri-tech supply chain startup EasyFresh, told Rest of World.

Mustafa started his career in 2004 in a traditional job as an IT analyst at consumer goods company Procter & Gamble and began working as an executive at telecom giant Mobilink in 2011.But the corporate jobs failed to give him a sense of fulfillment and he wanted to try his hand at “building things.” So, in 2017, after returning to Pakistan with a master’s in management from Stanford University, Mustafa launched Mauqa Online, an on-demand domestic help service. He struggled to keep the venture afloat after his funding got flagged by the government. Locked out of capital, he shut Mauqa Online in May 2021 and started looking for a job that would give him a steady salary. As luck would have it, the job he found was at Airlift. He started working at the company in a retail and strategy position in June 2021.

His brief time at Airlift taught him that it wasn’t impossible to run a startup and raise funding in Pakistan, Mustafa said. “I was really inspired [by Airlift],” he told Rest of World. “Finding myself in a place where another startup was being built from scratch, I knew I had to give myself another shot.”

In September 2021, Mustafa and three other co-founders launched EasyFresh Technologies, which focuses on Pakistan’s fresh produce supply chain and promises to eliminate middlemen, raise earnings for farmers, and provide higher-quality produce to retailers. In less than a year since its inception, EasyFresh has already attracted investors such as the Dubai-based Cianna Capital, early-stage investor Deosai Ventures, and MAGM Holdings.

Mustafa said that his experience at Airlift taught him some tough lessons. “I didn’t know there would be sleepless nights and nightmares, that I would run out of money. I never thought I would end up in a place like that,” he said. He and his co-founders are more prepared now. For instance, they haven’t incorporated EasyFresh in Pakistan — the startup is affiliated with Kadr Technologies in the United States. They have also accepted that hardships are inevitable. “Insomnia is a given,” he added with a wry laugh.

As several Pakistani startups begin to mature, Saif Ali, general manager at Dastgyr, expects the emergence of several “mafias” in the coming years. “As managers, we go out of our way to ensure that our talent is equipped with the skills that they need, and are getting the exposure that they need to make that happen. This is something we are deeply invested in,” he told Rest of World.

The emergence of founders with pre-existing roots in the startup world also suggests that entrepreneurship in Pakistan is becoming widespread. “We constantly have young, scrappy people coming forward and saying, we have a far more efficient way to solve these problems,” Ali said. “It creates a fertile landscape for tech-driven solutions, for founders to come in and build new companies that add value to society as a whole.”

 

[_NOBODY_]

Pakistani logistics startup raises $13 million
By Bilal Hussain | February 05, 2022

KARACHI: Tech-based logistics startup Truck It In has raised $13 million funding in addition to $4.5 million pre-seed funding, bringing up total funding to $17.5 million, which the company mainly aims to use for expansion, officials said.

This brings up the total funding to $17.5 million for the company.

“This seed round comes at an opportune time, as the funds will be deployed to expand our business, driving hiring across all functions, focusing on engineers to help double down on product development and increase our digital penetration in the market,” CEO Muhammad Sarmad Farooq said.

“We are on an exciting journey creating value and solving deep-rooted challenges. In the past year, our revenue has grown 37x. The impact generated allows truckers to lead better economic lives while serving the country.”

The $13 million seed round was jointly led by venture capital firms Global Founders Capital and Fatima Gobi Ventures. The startup said the seed round was the largest of its kind in the MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan) region, eclipsing previous highs seen in 2021, which was already a banner year for Pakistani startups.

The round also saw participation from Wamda, Picus Capital, Millville, Graph Ventures, Zayn Capital, i2i Ventures, ADB Ventures, Cianna Capital, Reflect Ventures, and K3 Ventures.

Pakistan is one of the largest road freight markets in the Middle East and North Africa, representing a $25 billion annual opportunity. The startup said it aims to be the nexus of road freight in the country by simplifying business for Pakistan’s three million SME businesses and SME truckers (80 percent of the supply market), who operate in an increasingly complex and deeply fragmented industry.

Senior National Manager Supply and Acquisition Muneeb Shakil, also a founding member of the startup, said they were serving the logistics market by bringing shippers and truckers on its business to business platform.

“Shippers, who are businesses, can book different types of trucks and containers, which suits their product such as fertilisers, finished goods etc. Meanwhile, firms can register their trucks and containers with the online app.”

He said that the Karachi-based startup also has offices in Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad and has clients such as Engro and Fatima Fertilizers to name a few. The company has already brought 600 shippers and 9,000 truckers on board.

Ali Mukhtar, General Partner Fatima Gobi Ventures, said the pandemic has accelerated digital adoption among larger players, widening the gaps of the haves and have-nots in the logistics world.

“We believe Truck It In is key to closing this gap by making it easy for SME truckers to streamline operations and compete on a more level playing field while keeping costs competitive and serving as a vital lifeline for Pakistan’s thriving economy. With Sarmad and his team at the wheel, Pakistan’s SMEs are in pole position for a strong, sustainable, digital future,” Mukhtar said.

Alejandro Montealegre from Millville Opportunities Master Fund said, “We are excited to back Truck It In’s high calibre team who are providing tremendous value to a critical sector of Pakistan’s economy.”

Kalsoom Lakhani, Co-Founder and GP at i2i Ventures, said, “Pakistan’s trucking industry presents an enormous opportunity for innovation and disruption, and we have a deep conviction in the Truck it In team, who are tackling this head-on. We are impressed by their execution and honoured to support them on their journey as their investors.”

Khurram Schehzad, Founder Alpha Beta Core, said that Pakistan has a large population and has huge service gaps in almost all industries.

“It is great to see funding coming for Pakistani startups,” Schehzad said. “Pakistan has great potential to attract funding for startups. There are huge gaps that have been addressed in other parts of the world by startups with ideas to solve them.”

There's a need for startups such as Truck It In to make business and economy more efficient through digitisation. He admitted this was not a completely new idea, but that Pakistan needed such startups.

“We shouldn’t be celebrating over $350 and $400 million (annual) investments,” said the seasoned tech industry analyst. “Pakistan has a potential of attracting $4 to $5 billion annually.”

Startups in Pakistan can attract $100 million and above in funding. Indian startups were attracting multiple of $100 million in funding because the business environment was viable there, something Pakistan needs to learn.

More efficient regulations were needed to make entry and exit for investment quick to attract more investors.

He said that regulatory bodies such as the State Bank and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan were making efforts to move in the right direction, but there was need for more work on it.

He said that to achieve the true potential of Pakistan’s tech-based startup culture, provision of tax incentives and cheap internet should also be ensured.

 

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I won't be posting any Pakistani startups related articles from last year.

 

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Pakistan’s Webx E-Commerce Raises First Seed Funding from UAE
By Press Release | Published Feb 25, 2022 | 1:16 pm

Webx, the SaaS e-commerce start-up from Pakistan, allows retailers to build their online stores. According to official sources, Webx has recently raised an undisclosed amount in its first seed round funding from UAE-based investors.

Webx is a one-stop solution for e-commerce that takes care of the payment and delivery channels by automatically connecting the stores with top-tier payment providers and logistics services. The entire process of this platform is completely automated and retailers can set up their stores and start selling online within minutes.

The funding raised by the platform was arranged by Al-Hilal Securities Advisors. The commitment reflects investors’ belief in the exponential growth of the country’s IT and e-commerce sector. Moreover, these funds will be utilized to expand the consumer base of the company.

Al-Hilal Securities Advisors’ Chief Executive, Faraz Younus Bandukda, CFA said,

We are honored to assist this team led by Waleed Masood & Fraz Saleem. They are highly determined and passionate about building captivating experiences that dedicated communities can grow around — which aligns perfectly with our belief that eCommerce platforms will grow in the country. Over the last two years, in particular, we’ve seen Pakistan’s digital space exploding exponentially and international investors are excited to partner with Webx as they continue serving and growing this community.

Webx was officially launched in 2018, and boasts a GMV of over Rs. 1 billion through its platform in 2021 with a steady 50% yearly growth. Waleed Masood, the founder and CEO of Webx, believes that the growth of e-commerce and tech-enabled startups will allow the retail sector of Pakistan to flourish and drive the economy of the country, creating jobs and bringing in international investments into the country.

The CEO further added, “We want to make e-commerce easy and accessible to everyone. We have millions of retail businesses in Pakistan, and thousands of young entrepreneurs who are determined to build their own online brands.”

Zaheeruddin Khalid, CFA Director at Al Hilal Securities and leader of the Investment Consortium added,

Pakistan is a country with 60% of its 230 million-plus population in the 15 to 29 age group, which is the most tech savvy age bracket globally, is all geared up for the digital age.” says Zaheeruddin. “Ecommerce and fintech in Pakistan have seen phenomenal growth and we are excited to partner with Webx to be part of this ecosystem and play our part in the growth of technology in Pakistan.”

A tech platform like Webx is essentially needed to support this growing industry by enabling them to set up their online stores, easily connect with the ecosystem and build a long-lasting and scalable e-commerce business, as per the views shared by Waleed.

According to Fraz Saleem, the co-founder of Webx, “Our long-term vision is to enable the young entrepreneurs and SMEs of Pakistan to reach global audiences and create a wider acceptance of Pakistani goods and services in international markets.” He further added that “In line with the above aim, Webx is geared up to expand its services not only across Pakistan but at a global level.”

The startup landscape of Pakistan has attracted heavy international investments in the last 2 years, with more than $300 Million alone in 2021. Webx believes that the local eCommerce market will double in size in the next 3 years, going to $12 billion from its current $6 Billion.

 

[Great Janjua]

What Pakistan needs are amazon type online commerce markets.

Built from scratch for the local populace along with a solid user network from import to delivery to satisfaction.

Daraz currently is on the right line. but for now, their user network is shity and unreliable if the user is not satisfied there is no point in carrying on.

Online commerce is the foundation for local businesses and small startups. Just look at India.

 

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Pakistan’s B2B startup Jugnu says it has raised $22.5mn​

BR Web Desk 24 Mar, 2022

Pakistan’s B2B ecommerce startup Jugnu, which connects small businesses with suppliers, has raised $22.5 million in the form of initial strategic investment from MENA-based Sary.

The round was led by Sary, with participation from Pakistani venture capital fund Sarmayacar and Pakistani digital technology company Systems Limited, read a statement issued by the company on Thursday.

The funding will be used to accelerate the development of Jugnu's B2B ecommerce ecosystem and strengthen the country's retail supply chain.

“Jugnu has focused on developing strong capabilities and moats in key markets during the last 18 months, leveraging our product-market fit to grow rapidly during this period," said Sharoon Saleem, co-founder and CEO. "This round of investment will enable us to expand our team, ramp up our technological platform, expand product offerings and extend our geographical footprint."

Pakistan is home to over a million small-scale grocery shops (kiryana stores) that lack access to convenient inventory procurement, according to the company.

“Over two-thirds of the retail stores are never serviced directly by any organised distribution channel,” said Jugnu.

Founded in 2019, the startup currently covers a customer base of over 30,000 kiryanas across Lahore, Rawalpind and, Islamabad, with expansion to other major cities underway.

Commenting on the investment, Mohammed AlDossary, Co-Founder and CEO of Sary, said: “In a relatively short period of time, Jugnu is rapidly positioning itself as the platform of choice for kiryanas across Pakistan’s cities, demonstrating strong traction amongst its customers. As they continue to realise the market opportunity Pakistan brings, I look forward to working closely with Jugnu’s leadership to unlock the possibilities of local trade, bridging efficiency gaps in MENAP and beyond.

The strategic investment and alliance with Sary allows Jugnu to consolidate in the B2B space in MENAP."

Pakistan’s B2B startup Jugnu says it has raised $22.5mn

Series A round is led by MENA-based B2B startup Sary

www.brecorder.com

 

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Lahore-based COLABS raises $3mn in early funding​

Ali Ahmed 25 Mar, 2022
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sha...er.com/news/40163010&display=popup&ref=plugin

COLABS, a Lahore-based startup that provides flexible workspaces to SMEs, entrepreneurs and freelancers, announced on Friday that it has raised $3 million in a seed round.

The latest investment paves the way for COLABS to expand its presence across major cities in Pakistan, as it looks to "knit together a community of 100,000 entrepreneurs and freelancers in the country, starting with 10,000 members within the next two years".

The round was led by Indus Valley Capital, Zayn Capital and Fatima Gobi Ventures, the company said in a statement.

“It is the first time these three leading Pakistan-focused VCs are investing together in a startup,” said the company. The funding round also saw the participation of Shorooq Partners, Kinnow Capital, Muir Capital, Sai Ventures, and some key angels, including Turner Novak, William Hockey, and Teddy Himler.

Founded in 2019 by Omar Shah, a former private equity and venture investor, and twin brother Ali Shah, COLABS started as a co-working platform with a facility in Lahore. It 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.

At present, COLABS has a partner network of 100+ organisations involved in taking initiatives to boost the Pakistani startup ecosystem’s growth, it says.

Pakistan’s B2B startup Jugnu says it has raised $22.5mn

Aatif Awan, founder and Managing Partner of Indus Valley Capital, said, “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.”

Omar Shah, co-founder and CEO of COLABS, said, “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, to start and manage their businesses.”

Omar said the capital raised will allow the startup to offer software-based solutions and productised services.

Talking to Business Recorder, Alina Dar, Growth Lead at COLABS, said that the funding will be utilised to fuel the company’s national expansion.

“We aim to expand into Islamabad and Karachi, and open a new site in Lahore,” said Dar, adding that the company is also looking to enter other cities as well.

The startup ecosystem of Pakistan has seen a massive boost, grabbing the interest of both local and international investors.

Dar believes COLABS could emerge into a unicorn - a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion. She added that between 2024-25, some 5 to 6 unicorn companies would surface in the country.

Earlier this week, B2B ecommerce startup Jugnu announced it has raised $22.5 million in the form of initial strategic investment from MENA-based Sary.

The country attracted a record amount of investment in 2021 with 81 deals, securing roughly $350 million, according to Invest2Innovate (i2i). The amount raised is more than 5x of what was raised in 2020 i.e. $65 million.

Dar said the ongoing startup boom will continue in the coming years, as the ecosystem is currently witnessing a flurry of new entrants, especially in the fintech segment.

Lahore-based COLABS raises $3mn in early funding

Will use funds to expand to other cities

www.brecorder.com

 

[_NOBODY_]

Pakistan’s startups raise $163m in 3 months​

Three of the largest startups in 2022 were: Bazaar ($70m), Retailo’s ($36m), and Jugnu ($22.5m).
By News Desk

2 April 2022

Pakistani startups raised $163m through 15 deals during the first three months of 2022 despite the COVID-19 fallout.

According to Invest2Innovate, a Pakistani consultancy firm, the sector raised more than fifty percent of what was raised in all of 2021 ($350m).

Kalsoom Lakhani, the founder of Invest2Innovate and general partner at its sister firm i2iVentures, said $22.2m were racked in Q1 of 2021.

Read more: These 3 startups are here to disrupt the traditional systems of Pakistan!

She added that most of this amount was raised by B2B e-commerce space. The three largest disclosed startup funding rounds in 2022 were: Bazaar ($70m), Retailo’s ($36m), and Jugnu ($22.5m).

1/THIS IS *NOT* AN APRIL FOOLS DAY JOKE – OUR LATEST @INVEST2INNOVATE INSIGHTS GRAPHIC IS OUT. IN Q1 2022, PAKISTANI STARTUPS RAISED $163M IN FUNDING VIA 15 DEALS — MORE THAN 50% OF WHAT WAS RAISED IN ALL OF 2021 ($350M) & > 7X OF WHAT WAS DONE IN Q1 2021 ($22.2M)/ PIC.TWITTER.COM/4D59UBY7JA
— KALSOOM LAKHANI (@KALSOOM82) APRIL 1, 2022

“Fact that B2B e-commerce players raised later stage rounds is a strong signal for the Pakistani market, especially given concerns around a cooling off or a dearth of growth-stage capital,” the founder said.

Appreciating her team, Lakhani added that the Fintech sector performed well during the quarter, albeit primarily through earlier stage deals, such as NayaPay’s $13 million seed.

The founder noted that like other emerging markets, a “triangle” of funding has been observed, and e-commerce, Fintech, and logistics made up the total raised as these sectors have a “symbiotic relationship”.

Read more: Pakistani startup NayaPay secures $13 million in seed funding

Pakistani startups have raised a total of $563.5m across 255 deals since 2015, with $350 million raised via 83 deals in 2021 alone, accounting for over 60 percent of all deals completed within the past seven years.

Pakistan’s startups raise $163m in 3 months

Pakistani startups raised $163m through 15 deals during the first three months of 2022 despite the COVID-19 fallout.

www.globalvillagespace.com

 

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Online reselling startup Markaz Technologies raises $2.4m in seed funding

Published May 10, 2022

The team of Islamabad-based startup Markaz Technologies that provides an online reselling platform. — Markaz Technologies

Islamabad-based startup Markaz Technologies on Tuesday announced it had secured $2.4 million in seed funding led by Indus Valley Capital (IVC).

The investment round would also be joined by angel investors, including Kyane Kassiri from Suya Fund and executives from Careem, Deloitte, Amazon and Gojek, Markaz said in a press release.

Markaz Technologies is a Y-Combinator-backed — the prestigious US-based accelerator — startup that provides an online reselling platform to anyone in Pakistan to source wholesale products from across the country and sell them with a profit through their own social media stores, without any investment of their own.

Markaz says it is on a mission to "supercharge the rails of e-commerce and make it accessible for masses in Pakistan by empowering these micro-entrepreneurs".

"Markaz is building for all of Pakistan, with the ambition of enabling those in smaller cities and villages to source products directly from wholesalers and suppliers," the press release quoted IVC Founder and Managing Partner Aatif Awan as saying.

Awan said the startup would also create "hundreds of thousands of micro-entrepreneurs" along the way and bring them into the financial ecosystem. "We, at IVC, are thrilled to partner with Markaz in helping them realise their mission," he said.

The startup was founded in the last quarter of 2021 by Shoaib Khan, Fawad Hussain, Sameel Hayat and Umair Aslam — who have worked in Pakistan and across the globe in large-scale tech organisations like Telenor, Amazon, Easypaisa and Alipay.

Markaz will utilise the investment from the successful funding round to further scale and develop its mobile platform and improve user experience by enhancing delivery operations, payments and customer servicing.

Online reselling startup Markaz Technologies raises $2.4m in seed funding

The investment will be used to further scale and develop the platform's mobile platform and improve user experience.

www.dawn.com