How much credible information is available when you set out to study the funding landscape in Pakistan’s startup ecosystem? With 2017 gone half way through, how much recognition has there been of the investments availed by local startups during 2016? In the space below we shall be tackling these two questions along with enlisting the startups which availed funding in 2016.
In February this year, Planet N’s Research & Analytics Group drafted a report chalking out the road map for the startup ecosystem in Pakistan. According to the statistics provided in the report, a total of 723 startups have been initiated in Pakistan since 2010. Out of these, only 68 have been able to raise funds, whereas only 6 have managed to raise funds greater than $500,000. The report highlighted that 67% of these startups are still active and 53% are linked to an incubator/accelerator. These numbers present a journey of seven years and are an insight into the entrepreneurial culture in the country.
Also Read: Federal Budget 2017: Impact On Business And Startup Industry
The numbers become significantly more important when you take them with the fact that according to UNDP, 23% of the youth wants to start their own business in Pakistan – a country where nearly two-thirds of the 200 million strong population is under 30. Every year there are four million youth coming into the job market in Pakistan. In the absence of an efficient jobs landscape, one of the answers has to be startups.
Another interesting fact is that most of the country’s commercial banks are risk averse, and despite the promising opportunities offered by the human resources, prefer to keep the status quo by lending loans to traditional manufacturers and industries run by well established families.
Standing at the rock bed of this data, we decided to prepare a list reflecting the current situation of funding in the existing startup ecosystem in Pakistan. Who is funding and what is getting funded, are the areas of interest we have focused on while preparing this list for startup fundings received in 2016.
Also Read: Pakistan Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report 2016 – An Industry Handbook
While big data, artificial intelligence, and digitalization of services continue to be the prime areas of focus for the investors, the fledgling startup industry is a burgeoning space and there’s a growing room for global investors.
Raising a toast to the startups who have been struggling against the odds, and the investors who have been stepping in with theirs the first skin, here we present to you a startup fundings list of 2016. Sorted alphabetically, here is what we have dug out:
1. Baby Planet
City: Lahore
Founded: 2014
Category: Ecommerce
Vertical: Baby products
Investment: Undisclosed
Stage: Seed
Investor: Yasser Bashir, Romana Abdullah, Umair Javed
Incubator: PlanX (accelerator)
2. Beauty Hooked
City: Lahore
Founded: 2015
Category: Ecommerce
Vertical: Beauty services
Investment: $280,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: Fatima Ventures
Incubator: Lums Center for Entrepreneurship/PlanX
3. Bitsym
City: Islamabad
Founded: 2012
Category: IoT/Data Analytics
Vertical: Industrial
Investment: $400,000
Stage:
Investor:
Incubator:
* There is no public information about the funding, incubator or investor.
4. ChaiChalk
City: Lahore
Founded: 2015
Category: Entertainment
Vertical: Literature
Investment: $100,000
Stage:
Investor: Unilever Pakistan, Mobilink
Incubator: LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship
5. Delivery Chacha
City: Karachi
Founded: 2015
Category: Ecommerce
Vertical: Local delivery service
Investment: Undisclosed
Stage: Strategic investment for horizontal integration
Investor: HSN Ventures, backed by Creative Chaos
Incubator: None
6. Finja
City: Lahore
Founded: 2015
Category: FinTech
Vertical: Payments
Investment: $1,000,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: Vostok Emerging Finance
Incubator: None
7. HappeningPK
City: Karachi
Founded: 2014
Category: AdTech
Vertical: Events/ Ticketing
Investment: Undisclosed
Stage: Series A
Investor: Flagship (Pvt) Limited
Incubator: None
8. KarloCompare.com.pk
City: Karachi
Founded: 2015
Category: FinTech
Vertical: Price Comparison
Investment: Undisclosed
Stage: First angel investment round
Investor: Hina Khawaja Bayat & Roger Dawood Bayat, Dr Namoos Baquar, Planet N
Incubator: None
9. MangoBaaz
City: Lahore
Founded: 2015
Category: Media
Vertical: Entertainment
Investment: $115,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: Fatima Ventures
Incubator: PlanX
10. Patari
City: Lahore
Founded: 2015
Category: Online Streaming
Vertical: Music
Investment: $200,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: Sarmayacar
Incubator: Plan 9
11. PerkUp.pk
City: Karachi
Founded: 2015
Category: AdTech
Vertical: loyalty program
Investment: $140,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: DotZero Ventures and CresVentures
Incubator: None
12. RepairDesk
City: Lahore
Founded: 2014
Category: SaaS
Vertical: Mobile Phones
Investment: $43,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: Anant Handa
Incubator: LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship
13. Retailistan
City: Karachi
Founded: 2015
Category: SaaS/IoT
Vertical: Retail
Investment: $100,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: Technubator
Incubator: Technubator
* The information about the funding, incubator or investor could not be confirmed.
14. Sabzi.pk
City: Lahore
Founded: 2015
Category: Online Forum
Vertical: Retail
Investment: Undisclosed
Stage: Seed
Investor:
Incubator: LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship
* There is no public information about the funding or investor.
15. Slide App
City: Lahore
Founded: 2015
Category: Mobile Apps
Vertical: News
Investment: $3,600,000
Stage: Series A
Investor: Songhyun Investment
Incubator: None
16. Smartchoice
City: Karachi
Founded: 2015
Category: FinTech
Vertical: Price Comparison
Investment: Undisclosed
Stage: Seed
Investor: Muddassir
Incubator: None
* There is no public information about the funding or investor.
17. Sukoon
City: Karachi
Founded: 2015
Category: Online Forum
Vertical: Home repair and service solutions
Investment: Undisclosed
Stage: Seed
Investor: CresVentures, Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) Islamabad Chapter and DotZero Ventures
Incubator: The Nest I/O
18. Travly
City: Lahore
Founded: 2014
Category: On Demand
Vertical: Transportation
Investment: $200,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: CresVentures
Incubator: Plan9
19. Well.pk
City: Karachi
Founded: 2014
Category: Ecommerce
Vertical: Real Estate
Investment: $1,000,000
Stage: Seed
Investor: Nadeem Hussain and Noor Abid
Incubator: None
20. Zameen.com
City: Lahore
Founded: 2006
Category: Online Forum
Vertical: Real Estate
Investment: $22,100,000
Stage: Series C
Investor: Frontier Digital Ventures ($2.1 million; $20 million from Undisclosed sources)
Incubator: None
* Zameen has been part of the Dubai company which got invested in.
Would you like to add anything to this report? Have we missed any startup funding episode from 2016? Do share your views. Your feed back is most welcome.
Bibliography:
- www.startuplist.pk
- www.angel.co
- www.crunchbase.com
- Individual websites of incubators/accelerator and startups
- Invest2Innovate Ecosystem Report 2016
- Planet N Challenges of the Startup Ecosystem in Pakistan Report
- Bloomberg.com
- PakWired.com
- Techjuice.com
