With two new funding transactions announced on Monday, an influx of foreign funding into Pakistan’s fintech businesses that began during the coronavirus pandemic continues unabated.
KTrade, a fintech trading app developed by Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Securities Pvt., and Omair Ansari, a former Morgan Stanley fund manager, have raised a combined $6.6 million, bringing the total funding for the country’s startups to $19.3 million in the first quarter of 2021.
According to an April tweet by Invest2Innovate, a startup support organisation, roughly $15 million came from overseas investors, who pumped a record $48 million into the sector last year. The drop in global air traffic during Covid-19 has been an unexpected advantage for entrepreneurs in the South Asian country, which has been the subject of numerous travel advisories.
“Because an investor’s due diligence procedure used to require them to visit the nation, Covid has aided us. In an interview, Ali Farid Khwaja, chairman of Karachi-based KASB Securities, claimed that it was not simple for them to visit Pakistan. “Now that they are unable to go to any place, they have become more open to speaking with founders via Zoom and other digital platforms.”
According to a statement from the firm, KTrade, which allows investors to purchase and sell equities on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by Hong Kong-based TT Bond Partners and New York-based HOF Capital. Christian Angermayer, a German investor, was also a part of the round.
Ansari raised $2.1 million in seed funding for Abhi, a company that, like Payactiv Inc. and Wagestream Ltd., allows employees to view their salaries before they are paid out. VEF Ltd. and Village Global were among the investors, according to Ansari in an email.
“There are always stages in an ecosystem,” said Talal Gondal, CEO of TAG Innovation Pvt., which recently received one of the region’s largest pre-seed investments. “The Pakistani fintech wave is only getting started.”
