Another feather was added to Pakistan’s budding startup sector after NayaPay, a local fintech platform, managed to raise $13 million in early-stage funding, the company informed in a statement on Thursday.

The Karachi-based startup’s seed round was led by Zayn Capital, MSA Novo and Silicon Valley early-stage investor Graph Ventures, Chief Executive Officer Danish Lakhani said.

Singapore-based Saison Capital, Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital and Warren Hogarth, CEO Empower Finance, also participated in the round, alongside a major investment from the sponsors of the Lakson Group, informed the fintech.

Last year, NayaPay earned commercial approval to operate as the first Electronic Money Institution in Pakistan - after a year-long pilot and inspection by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

With latest inflows, the fintech intends to grab over 50 million un-banked adults in Pakistan. The fintech’s chat-led payments app started by targeting students and freelancers.

In its statement, NayaPay stated it has launched its chat-led super app targeted primarily at students and freelancers; and is building a SaaS based platform called NayaPay Arc offering universal payment acceptance and financial management tools for SMBs.

“NayaPay’s platform strategy will harness the network effects between consumers and merchants, as seen in platforms such as Square Cash/Square, WeChat Pay, AliPay and Venmo in their native markets,” read the statement.

NayaPay CEO and Founder Danish A. Lakhani commented: “NayaPay Arc will provide universal payments acceptance and a range of business financial management tools to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners.

“The tools are intended to give business owners the visibility of their cash flows, pay suppliers and grow sales. Our goal is to enable them to focus on growth while we take care of the rest. By helping small businesses harness the power of technology, we believe we can transform the Pakistani economy.”

Meanwhile, Faisal Aftab, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Zayn Capital Frontier, expressing confidence on the ‘very bullish’ fintech trend in Pakistan, said, “Pakistani fintechs have the advantage of learning from peers and placing better informed strategic bets.”

Earlier this month, Karachi-based Truck raised $13 million in early-stage funding, the largest seed round for a logistics startup in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as well as in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s startups witnessed a record-breaking 2021, as 81 deals attracted a mammoth $350 million, capping off a stellar year for the South Asian economy that faces issues of foreign-exchange inflow. The amount raised was more than 5x of that raised in 2020 i.e. $65 million.

Three of the biggest deals of 2021 were: Airlift ($85 million), Bazaar ($30 million), and Tajir ($17 million).

This story was first published in Business Recorder on February 24, 2022.