The Case for Investing in Pakistan
by Richie Carchia
Pakistan, despite being the fifth most populous country, has historically been overlooked by tech investors — and more broadly has been slow to digitize its economy compared to its neighbor, India. However, things now appear to be picking up.
In a country where traditional corporate jobs have been held on a pedestal as the path for achieving business success, “founder mafias” have more recently emerged. At the center of Pakistan’s ecosystem is the “Airlift Mafia,” which is a group of former corporate employees who quit their jobs and launched a number of prominent Pakistani startups, the most successful being Airlift Technologies. Today, the company is on track to become Pakistan’s first unicorn — whether they will achieve that this year is yet to be determined.
And, investors seem to be picking up on the momentum. This past year has seen the emergence of new investor interest within the country, which is best marked by Tiger Global’s investments in the area. In March, Tiger funded a $70 million Series B round for Bazaar, a Pakistani eCommerce company. They also participated in the Pre-Seed round of Zaraye, a B2B supplies platform in the construction space.
Already having solid footing in the startup scene in India, Tiger is now moving their strategy next door to a similar, yet less charted market.
On our end, we made an early investment in 24SEVEN, which provides B2B2C grocery delivery to branded kiryana stores (mom-and-pop shops) throughout Pakistan. Most recently, they successfully raised a $6M pre-Series A round, led by SOSV. Having wet our feet in Latin America, we are equally bullish on Pakistan.
While most of our focus is on underrepresented parts of North America, emerging economies provide outsized opportunities for innovation. In particular, we believe that the burgeoning eCommerce market in Pakistan represents tremendous potential for the next decade.
About the author: Richie Carchia is a deal flow analyst at Newlin VC and is also a recent graduate of the College of Charleston, where he studied political science. This past semester, he was abroad in France studying finance at EDHEC Business School.
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