Growth of Startups in Pakistan For 2022 | Top 6 in list
The year 2021 has witnessed record-breaking fundraising for the growth of startups in Pakistan.
The increasing levels of local capital have provided hopes for a bright economic future by creating significant opportunities for tech entrepreneurs in the world’s 5th most-populated country.
It is assumed that by the end of 2021 – 2022, startups in Pakistan will have a whopping $85 million collectively.
Read more to know some of the major highlights of the booming Pakistani startups from 2020 to 2021.
- Airlift (an app-based bus service) launched in 2019, has scored a series A fundraising round of $12 million.
- A Lahore-based online shopping company has raised $85 million in Series B financing co-led by Josh Buckley from Buckley Ventures Ltd and Harry Stebbings from 20VC. It would be the most extensive single private funding round in the history of Pakistan.
- Fintech Sadapay, an Islamabad-based company, has raised $7.2 million. It is supposed to be the largest seed round ever in our country.
- Trading app KTrade, since its launch in 2019, has raised $4.5 million by building around 200,000 users.
- A US-based large company Kleiner Perkins made its first investments and raised around $17 million for Tajir, a B2B company in Lahore that enables startup owners to buy directly from wholesalers and manufacturers.
- Another B2B firm, the market has raised $6.5 million in seed capital.
Apart from the above-listed startups, there are plenty of examples in other sectors as well.
Why Pakistani Startups are Booming Extraordinarily?
As per the Invest2Innovate data, Pakistani startups, the majority of which are based on e-commerce have marked a fundraising record of $101 million in the first half of the year 2021.
This value is much larger as compared to the previous year’s growth which was $66 million.
So many entrepreneurs who are well-familiar with the startup scenes are still unsure and finding the pinpoints that are triggering the growth of start-ups in Pakistan.
Maybe it is due to the recent pandemic (covid-19) that has forced worldwide businesses to work online or maintain a distance.
The country is seen to be more digitized after the pandemic. Such rapid development has also encouraged the investors to invest in those businesses that can be broadly shifted to “online”.
Some other fundamental reasons might be behind booming startups.
The domination of smartphones and the increasing usage of the internet are playing a prominent role in the growth of startups in Pakistan. With more than 100 million smartphone users in Pakistan, the potential for businesses to offer their products and services online is immense.
Furthermore, the startups in Pakistan continue to excel in tech exports, estimated to be $2.1 billion in June 2021. However, there is still a deep fear about digitization among the startup community and the investors.
Although India and China have already endorsed digitization across various sectors, such as promoting fintech, Pakistan still lacks it in that department.
The reason is, a vast majority of Pakistanis still haven’t their bank account. Hence the ratio of online payments and the use of credit cards is relatively low.
The Future of Startups in Pakistan – Final Thoughts!
So, as we discuss, all the above points in this blog are evidence that the time has already come to take several industries in the economy by storm.
Many people are moving towards freelancing because freelancing gives amazing benefits to earn online at an early age especially when you’re a student.
Despite all the unprecedented growth, Pakistan is still going to face some challenges in terms of digitization and a lack of government support. Hopefully, that too can be managed soon as we have already stepped into an exciting digital era.
