Record shattering startup Airlift to bring electric buses to Pakistan

• MoU was signed by Science and Technology minister Fawad Chaudhary and Airlift Technologies Co-founder/CEO.
• Startup raised $12 million for their Series A financing, which was the largest ever funding for a Pakistani startup.

The ride-hailing Pakistani startup Airlift, which connects passengers with buses on fixed-rate, would be bringing in electric buses to Pakistan, for which the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government.

The MoU was signed by Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Hussain Chaudhary and Co-founder/CEO of Airlift Technologies Usman Gul. “We are excited to put forth our plan of adding electric vehicles on our fleet, we are also extremely grateful for the support that we have received from all relevant government bodies,” said Airlift in a statement.

Earlier, the startup raised $12 million for their Series A financing, which was the largest ever funding for a Pakistani startup and so far one of the largest raise by any startup within the South Asian region this year.

The Series A round was led by Round Capital, a leading US venture capital firm, who invested in Uber, Square, Roblox, Looker, and Notion. Fatima Group and Gobi Partners, and Indus Valley Capital also funded Airlift again in this round through Fatima Gobi Ventures joint fund.

Just days ago, Pakistan’s federal cabinet approved the first-ever national Electric Vehicles (EV) policy in a bid to tackle effects of climate change and offer affordable transport. In the first phase, the government will focus on converting 30 percent of total number of vehicles, mainly cars and rickshaws, into EVs.