Myco Holdings said this investment would further fuel the growth of Pakistan’s video commerce landscape, as Buypass introduces the first ever shopping channel where customers can shop live through TV broadcast.

Myco founder Umair Masoom Usmani said he and Chief Executive Officer at Daman Investments Ahmed Khizer Khan had been backing BuyPass founder Muhammad Ammar Hassan since Day 0 to get BuyPass off the ground.

“Today we are proud to announce further deepening of this relationship whereby Myco Holdings has led the latest funding round for BuyPass,” Usmani said.

As a result of this investment and the underlying synergies, he said, BuyPass will fast track its journey towards making video commerce mainstream in Pakistan.

“Already with a million plus downloads and close to 500k MAUs across mobile for the BuyPass app and over 90% distribution across Pakistan for BuyPass TV, the incoming scale will be notable in the months to come,” he added.

Usmani said the investment also means that Ammar has taken a leadership role across the Myco ecosystem leading both Myco Pakistan and BuyPass teams into the next phase of growth.

“As a builder and investor at the intersection of tech and media / entertainment, myco continues to incubate and build further startups within the space and are firm on our thesis that media tech remains one of the largest opportunities in our region especially in Pakistan,” he stated.

BuyPass offers a wide range of products from verified sellers, with browsing categories, and making purchases with just a few taps. For the first time ever, BuyPass said, it brings quick commerce delivery within 3 hours for same-city orders, bringing top-quality products right to your doorstep.

Myco is one of the fastest-growing OTT streaming platforms in Pakistan with more than 40 million registered users.

Launched from UAE in 2021 by a Pakistani founder, Myco is more than just a video streaming app — it’s a next-generation media-tech platform built at the intersection of content, technology, and financial empowerment.

Ignite in a statement said the NIC will create new opportunities for technology driven startups and entrepreneurs in one of Pakistan’s leading industrial and export hubs.

NIC Sialkot, it said, will support up to 25 startups annually through mentorship, investor connections, business development support, market access, and digital innovation programmes.

“The initiative aims to accelerate entrepreneurship, strengthen export competitiveness, and foster innovation in emerging fields such as AI, Industry 4.0, advanced manufacturing, health technologies, and digital commerce,” it added.

To achieve its goal of building a knowledge economy in Pakistan, Ignite focuses on ecosystem development projects and fourth industrial wave technology.

Whereas, an NIC is a government-backed platform in different cities of Pakistan designed to support entrepreneurs and startups by providing mentorship, resources, and networking opportunities to foster innovation and economic growth.

Metal founder and CEO Usman Gul, also a founder of Airlift, announced the news via a social media post, stating that Rebel Fund has made a strategic investment in the company as part of a new partnership between the two organisations.

According to the statement, posted on social media, Rebel Fund employs a data-driven investment model, leveraging large datasets and a proprietary investment framework to identify and invest in top-performing startups. The fund claims to have backed more than 300 startups to date, focusing on the top 10% of companies from YC batches.

“Today, we’re announcing a partnership whereby Rebel Fund made a strategic investment in Metal, and we are excited to offer Rebel portfolio companies 25% off on all plans,” said Gul.

Further details regarding the size of the investment and the terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded by Usman Gul, Metal operates as an AI operating system designed to assist founders with their fundraising and venture capital workflows.

The AI platform provides deep intelligence and automation to assist startups’ funding rounds.

Meanwhile, as per information available on Rebel’s website, the company’s investing partners are accomplished Y Combinator alumni who have co-founded companies now valued at over $100B in aggregate — including Reddit, Instacart, Cruise, Gusto, Scribd, Rappi, and more — and together invested in over 250 startups with top-decile portfolio returns.

Rebel has unique access to top Y Combinator startups with a nearly 100% deal win rate, typically pre-Demo Day. The fund utilises a proprietary machine-learning algorithm called Rebel Theorem 4.0 to help validate and screen potential investments, building a diversified portfolio of Y Combinator startups that is statistically powered to outperform, it added.

Speaking on the occasion, Haroon Akhtar Khan said that in line with the Prime Minister’s vision, the government is undertaking comprehensive measures for the digital transformation of the SME sector. He stated that connecting Pakistani businesses with international markets through e-commerce platforms remains a key priority of the government.

He further said that collaboration with Alibaba Group will create new opportunities for youth, entrepreneurs, and startups, while also contributing to the promotion of exports and digital commerce in Pakistan.

READ MORE: PM visits Alibaba Group HQs in Hangzhou

Haroon Akhtar Khan emphasized that the SME sector serves as the backbone of the national economy and that the government is committed to promoting investment, exports, and industrial growth through business-friendly policies.

He described the partnership between SMEDA and Alibaba Group as an important step toward strengthening Pakistan’s digital economy and enhancing international business connectivity.

Secretary Industries and Production Saif Anjum and the Additional Secretary Industries and Production were also present at the signing ceremony.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

Speaking at a session titled “Securing Capital and Global Survival for Pakistani Startups” at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi, Zaidi said investors are ultimately driven by returns, and startups must structure their models accordingly to attract sustainable financing.

He cautioned founders against adopting only Western startup narratives, saying Pakistan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem should instead draw lessons from successful local examples operating within domestic constraints.

Zaidi also pointed to structural challenges in Pakistan’s financial environment, noting that a significant portion of capital remains outside formal channels, which affects access to financing for legitimate startups.

The session, organised by the Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), brought together student founders, alumni, and industry participants, who engaged the former FBR chief on taxation, regulatory compliance, and cross-border expansion strategies.

CED Director Dr Lalarukh Ejaz said Zaidi’s experience across public policy and corporate sectors offered valuable insights for entrepreneurs navigating a difficult economic landscape.

IBA officials said the institution continues to support startups through incubation, mentorship, and investor linkages as part of its broader entrepreneurship ecosystem.

According to a statement on Thursday, SAP represents a major step toward building a stronger, innovation-driven, and inclusive startup ecosystem in Sindh.

The program was inaugurated by Syed Qassim Naveed Qamar, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister, Government of Sindh, alongside Raja Khurram Shahzad Umer, Secretary Investment, Government of Sindh.

In her welcome address, Dr Lalarukh Ejaz, Director IBA CED, reaffirmed IBA CED’s commitment to strengthening Pakistan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through mentorship, training, and institutional support for high-potential startups.

She also acknowledged the continued collaboration and support of the Government of Sindh, SEDF, and Sapphire Consulting Services in enabling impactful entrepreneurial initiatives.

Pakistani co-founded AI startup Cursor draws $60bn buyout option from SpaceX

Addressing the participants, Syed Qassim Naveed Qamar reiterated his government’s commitment to empowering entrepreneurs and enabling startups to transform potential into progress through access to resources, mentorship, and institutional facilitation.

Meanwhile, speaking at the occasion, Raja Khurram Shahzad Umer shared the Sindh government’s vision to continue creating entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth and startup community of the province. He described entrepreneurship as a mindset, encouraging founders to think boldly and build fearlessly.

Khizer Pervaiz, CEO of SEDF, highlighted the organisation’s continued efforts in enterprise development and acknowledged IBA CED as a key partner in supporting startups across Sindh.

During the ceremony, laptops were also distributed among the participating startups.

The remarks were made by Zarrar Hasham Khan, Federal Secretary of IT & Telecommunication, during the National Incubation Centre Karachi, an Ignite initiative under the Ministry of IT & Telecom, graduation ceremony of 28 startups from its 13th cohort.  

“The graduation ceremony at NIC Karachi reflects the hard work and determination of our entrepreneurs,” said Zarrar Hasham.

“Through the ministry’s global programs and continued support, we are committed to connecting our startups with international opportunities and markets. At the same time, founders must embrace emerging technologies, particularly AI, not just to stay relevant but to lead innovation.

Learning AI and integrating it into business models will significantly enhance productivity, efficiency, and global competitiveness,” he added.

Since its inception, NIC Karachi has incubated over 440 startups, created more than one million jobs, generated over Rs12 billion in revenues and raised over Rs13 billion in investments. The centre provides incubation, mentorship, legal and financial advisory, investor access, and advanced labs in fintech, industrial automation, and media.

Pakistani co-founded AI startup Cursor draws $60bn buyout option from SpaceX

Addressing the graduation ceremony, Syed Azfar Hussain, Project Director at NIC Karachi, emphasised the significance of the graduation, stating, “NIC Karachi takes great pride in witnessing these startups achieve this important milestone. The consistent mentorship and support extended throughout their journey have been instrumental in shaping their growth and readiness for the market.

As these startups graduate, we remain committed to our role as a leading force in Pakistan’s incubation landscape, continuing to empower and elevate the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs across the country.”

He further stated, “NIC Karachi, in partnership with Ignite and MoITT, has successfully fostered an environment that encourages entrepreneurship and innovation. NIC Karachi is committed to supporting the startup ecosystem in Pakistan, and we strive to empower Pakistani startups, catalysing innovation, and contributing to the overall economic prosperity of the country.”

Muhammad Bilal Abbasi, General Manager Projects at Ignite, highlighted the significance of the graduation of Cohort 13, noting the steady growth of Pakistan’s startup ecosystem and its increasing visibility on the global stage.

He shared that Ignite’s National Incubation Centres (NICs), established across major cities, have become strong platforms for innovation and entrepreneurship, supporting startups in building practical, market-ready solutions, particularly in the technology space.

Abbasi added that the graduating startups of Cohort 13 reflect this progress, demonstrating the impact of structured mentorship, access to funding opportunities, and strong industry connections.

He emphasised that NICs continue to play an important role in preparing startups to scale, compete internationally, and contribute to Pakistan’s digital economy and broader economic prosperity by building innovative, export-oriented ventures that generate jobs, attract investment, and strengthen the country’s long-term economic growth.

The event also featured testimonials from startup founders, who shared their entrepreneurial journeys, key milestones, and success stories.

They highlighted how NIC Karachi’s structured incubation program, mentorship, and access to industry networks played a pivotal role in transforming their ideas into scalable and sustainable businesses. The ceremony concluded with a formal certificate distribution segment, where the guests presented certificates to the graduating startups.

Along with OpenAI and Anthropic, Cursor is one of several Silicon Valley startups that have drawn waves of developers by using artificial intelligence to automate coding, a business where AI companies have found early commercial traction.

The deal could give xAI, the ⁠Grok chatbot maker that SpaceX merged with in February, a stronger foothold in the AI coding market where it has so far lagged rivals. It also provides Cursor with more computing capacity to develop AI models.

“The combination of Cursor’s leading product and distribution to expert software engineers with SpaceX’s million H100 equivalent Colossus training supercomputer will allow us to build the world’s most useful models,” SpaceX said in an X post on Tuesday.

“Cursor has also given SpaceX the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for our work together.”

Colossus is xAI’s supercomputer cluster ⁠in Memphis, which it has touted as the largest in the world. The company has been spending billions of dollars on AI infrastructure.

According to Forbes, Sualeh Asif, originally from Karachi, cofounded Cursor with three friends from MIT.

Asif, boosting a net worth of $1.3 billion, represented Pakistan in the International Math Olympiad from 2016 to 2018.

As per the report, Cursor reached a $29.3 billion valuation in November 2025, after raising $2.3 billion. The startup claims to have more than $1 billion in annualised revenue.

“This is a profoundly proud moment for Pakistan, and undeniable proof for our youth that there is no ceiling to what they can achieve,” Bilal bin Saqib, the Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, said in a post ​on Thursday.

Saqib noted that talent has never been Pakistan’s problem. “What we lack is the ecosystem to support them locally,” he said.

He was of the view that Sualeh’s story should inspire two things in every young Pakistani, i.e. immense pride and the stubborn conviction.

“We don’t lack brilliant minds; we lack the right conditions. With the right policy, capital, and leadership that treats our youth as our greatest asset, this is a fully solvable problem,” he said.

Meanwhile, the announcement comes ahead of SpaceX’s highly anticipated public debut in the coming months, with the company eyeing ⁠a valuation of close to $1.75 trillion and a $75 billion fundraise that could go down as the biggest IPO in history.

Two product engineering heads at Cursor, a startup that sells ⁠AI models for coding tasks, said in March they joined SpaceX to contribute to the company’s lunar projects and xAI, Musk’s AI startup that ⁠is now part of SpaceX.

Musk welcomed the engineers, Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, saying, “Orbital space centres and mass drivers on the Moon will be incredible.”

In just two years, outstanding SME lending has climbed from roughly Rs560 billion to just under Rs1 trillion, even as policy rates remained in double digits and monetary conditions stayed tight.

More importantly, the expansion is not simply the result of larger tickets booked to familiar names.

The number of SME borrowers has also risen sharply, from around 175,000 to more than 300,000. By any serious standard, this is a genuine access-to-finance and inclusion story, and one that deserves full appreciation.

The immediate driver is hardly mysterious. The SBP’s Risk Coverage Scheme (Credit Guarantee Scheme) launched in Jul 2024 altered the incentive structure for commercial banks by offering portfolio-level first-loss coverage on incremental SME lending.

In effect, the state moved away, at least partially, from subsidizing the price of credit through concessional low-markup schemes and began instead to absorb part of the credit downside through a fiscally budgeted contingent liability. That is, in principle, a cleaner approach. It suggests that policymakers have finally moved closer to the real constraint in SME finance.

The problem was never merely the cost of funds; it was always risk, or more precisely, the willingness to bear it.

So far, the scheme appears to have delivered exactly what it was supposed to deliver. Credit has expanded, borrower counts have increased, and banks have entered segments they long approached with visible hesitation. All of that deserves to be acknowledged plainly. Yet this is precisely why the present moment demands scrutiny rather than applause alone. Once a guarantee starts moving credit at scale, the relevant question is no longer whether it works. The real question is what kind of market it is creating, and what exactly the banking system is learning from it.

That question matters because Pakistan is not merely using a new instrument; it is slowly replacing one philosophy of public credit support with another. The old model relied on cheap liquidity, concessional windows, and hidden or semi-hidden subsidy. The new one, at least on paper, is more transparent: the subsidy is not embedded in the markup, but budgeted explicitly through risk coverage. That is a step forward. But better optics do not guarantee better architecture. An instrument may be more modern in form, yet still deeply flawed in design.

The problem is straightforward. A blanket portfolio-level first-loss cover does not merely encourage banks to lend more; it also shields them against a portion of the expected loss embedded in rapid incremental origination. And in any business cycle, rapid credit growth rarely reflects a sudden flowering of underwriting discipline. It is usually accompanied by thinner filters, faster approvals, weaker screening, more aggressive sales behaviour, and a gradual drift down the quality curve. That is not cynicism. It is how lending booms work. When volume is pushed hard, credit standards usually widen long before institutions admit they have widened.

In SME lending, that risk is even more acute. Small businesses are inherently harder to underwrite in a formal banking framework. Financial statements are often weak or incomplete, collateral is inconsistent, cash flows are volatile, documentation is thin, and recoveries are cumbersome. In such an environment, the line between genuine financial inclusion and sloppy origination can become blurred very quickly. If the state steps in at that stage with blanket first-loss protection, banks are not necessarily being taught to understand SME risk better. They may simply be learning that part of the ordinary downside can now be shifted elsewhere.

This is where the distinction between expected loss and unexpected loss becomes central. Some losses are normal. They are part of lending, and especially part of lending into difficult segments. Such losses must remain with the lender, as they are not a policy problem; rather, a failure of underwriting discipline, monitoring quality, collections effort, or borrower selection. Beyond that lies unexpected loss, which emerges when the cycle turns, correlations rise, margins compress, demand weakens, and even competently originated portfolios come under stress. That is where a guarantee begins to make sense. It is meant to help lenders stretch into viable but difficult terrain without forcing them to absorb every unit of downside alone.

The trouble begins when that distinction is blurred, or worse, institutionalized away. If portfolio-wide, first-loss coverage becomes the governing template, the market starts will internalize the wrong lesson. From their perspective, banks no longer need to become materially better at pricing SME risk, segmenting borrowers intelligently, verifying cash flows more rigorously, or building stronger recovery systems. They simply need to become more willing to originate under a partial public cushion. Credit may grow under that model, but the market does not necessarily deepen. Volume rises, while capability lags.

That is why guarantee-led boom can look strongest precisely when it is most fragile. In the early phase, the numbers will flatter everyone. Disbursements are rising, inclusion improves, borrower counts has increased dramatically, and policymakers can point to a visible success story. Banks, for their part, acquire a new growth engine at a time when other segments are underperforming. Yet credit cycles are never judged at origination; they are judged in repayment. The real test comes later, when margins tighten, cash flows weaken, liquidity conditions shift, and the weaker cohorts begin to crack. That is when guarantee calls arrive, and that is precisely when bad design shall stop looking theoretical.

If the market has spent the upswing treating guarantees as protection against the ordinary deterioration that accompanies aggressive portfolio growth, the downturn will produce a very predictable backlash. What was celebrated as innovation in expansion will be denounced as fiscal leakage in stress. Questions will surface about moral hazard, adverse selection, and whether banks were ever truly carrying enough of the downside. Banking bureaucracy will then do what administrators usually do: narrow eligibility, harden documentation, slow approvals, and wrap the scheme in defensive caution. A promising instrument will begin to fail in public perception, not because the idea was unsound, but because the design confused credit expansion with credit discipline.

That is the risk policymakers and central bank should worry about now, while the numbers still look flattering. The country does need a functioning guarantee ecosystem. It does need to move away from opaque quasi-fiscal credit subsidies and toward explicit, budgeted, rules-based support. It does need instruments that help formal finance enter sectors it has historically ignored or mispriced. But none of that means every guarantee design is equally defensible. A guarantee cannot become a standing cleaning service for weak origination. If the public sector routinely absorbs the first layer of losses generated by aggressive growth, it is not strengthening the market. It is subsidizing the market’s failure to learn.

The right foundation is conceptually simple, even if it is politically less comfortable. The lender must continue to fear ordinary loss, because that is what keeps credit work honest. The first layer of pain must remain close enough to the originating institution that appraisal, monitoring, collections, and product design still matter. Public risk sharing should be reserved for genuine stress, frontier expansion, and forms of uncertainty that are real but difficult for private lenders to absorb alone. Otherwise, the guarantee ceases to be a catalyst and begins behaving like a cushion for routine slippage. At that point, the state is no longer helping the market take disciplined risk; it is helping the market postpone discipline.

Pakistan’s SME credit boom should therefore be read carefully, not just celebrated noisily. It may indeed mark the beginning of a better approach to access to finance. But that will depend on whether the local financial market understands what a credit guarantee is actually for. If it is used to share unexpected loss and enable disciplined expansion into underserved segments, it can help build a durable market. If it is treated as blanket first-loss comfort on incremental portfolios, it will encourage growth without forcing banks to truly learn SME risk.

A functioning guarantee market is not one that absorbs early losses and teaches bankers to avoid pain altogether. It is one that absorbs the right kind of pain: genuine stress, not weak credit work; frontier uncertainty, not routine slippage; market-building risk, not the ordinary consequences of growth outrunning discipline. Pakistan’s recent SME lending surge may prove that guarantees can move credit. The harder task now is to ensure they do not teach the market the wrong lesson. If that lesson is learned badly, a potentially useful innovation will not fail because the intent was misguided. It will fail because the foundation was.

In the two-day Pakistan Investor Summit 2026 hosted by National Incubation Center (NIC), Karachi, earlier this week, tech experts and investors stressed need for focusing on businesses that survive, while urging all stakeholders of the IT industry to promote collaboration and unlock new growth pathways.

Speaking to Business Recorder on the final day of the summit, Asma Zeeshan, Regional Business Head at Jazz, said building a business that survives requires a balance of clarity, discipline and adaptability.

“Startups must focus on solving a real problem, understanding their customer deeply through market research and data driven insights with value proposition,” she said.

Also read: NIC Karachi hosts Pakistan Investor Summit 2026

Asma was of the view that resilience comes from maintaining financial discipline, creating agile processes and staying focused on core strengths while continuously learning from the market.

“A good team culture is important in startups where everyone is heard and given value to the ideas, and has clarity on the company vision as it helps early investments to strengthen collaboration, diversity, and innovation.”

She said key drivers such as clear pitch, validated market, solid projections and bootstrapping helps reduce dilution early and helps to secure initial funding.

Asma said long-term sustainability is achieved when founders acquire and retain customers, have good financial management and cash control along with building the flexibility to adapt rapid market changes.

Meanwhile, highlighting aims and achievements of the moot, Syed Azfar Hussain, Project Director at NIC, Karachi, said the summit aimed to strengthen Pakistan’s startup investment landscape by connecting capital with high-potential ventures and enabling informed investment decisions.

He said the key objectives of the summit were to deepen investor understanding of startup ecosystems, facilitate meaningful connections between founders and investors, and position Pakistan as an emerging destination for venture capital.

“It also aimed to bring together diverse ecosystem stakeholders, including banks, regulators, telcos, and corporate leaders to foster collaboration and unlock new growth pathways.”

According to the NIC official, a major highlight was the announcement of eight NIC Karachi alumni startups collectively raising over $1 million, alongside others securing strategic corporate partnerships.

The summit convened a diverse network of participants, including around 25 investors/ecosystem enablers, who engaged directly with startups through curated meetings and discussions, a press release stated.

“This strong participation reflects the growing confidence in Pakistan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the increasing appetite for early- and growth-stage investments,” it said.

Over the course of two days, the summit delivered an experience designed to maximize value for both startups and investors.

Also read: 30 startups graduate from NIC Karachi as part of 12th Cohort

The first day featured startup pitching sessions, where ventures from NIC Karachi Cohort 13 and Cohort 14 presented their ideas to a curated panel of investors, showcasing high-potential, scalable solutions and gaining direct access to funding opportunities and expert feedback.

The 2-day summit focused on dedicated one-on-one investor office hour sessions, enabling startups to engage in deeper discussions with investors, explore potential deals, and receive tailored insights in a more personalised setting.

“These interactions facilitated meaningful connections and opened pathways for future collaborations,” the statement said.

Collectively, participating startups from NIC Karachi demonstrated strong funding traction, with total portfolio funding reaching approximately $1.01 million (around Rs28.3 crore/283 million), according to the release.

“The funding mix reflects a balanced and evolving ecosystem, with equity-based investments accounting for nearly 70% of the total. Additionally, grant funding contributed approximately 27%, highlighting strong alignment with development and impact-driven initiatives, while minimal reliance on debt financing (around 2.5%) underscores a preference for sustainable and growth-oriented capital structures.”

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Azfar Hussain (Project Director) at NIC Karachi stated, “The Pakistan Investor Summit reflects our continued commitment to building a strong, connected investment ecosystem in Pakistan. By creating structured opportunities for engagement between startups and investors, we are not only facilitating access to capital but also enabling knowledge exchange, mentorship, and long-term partnerships. The quality of startups and the depth of investor interest we witnessed this year reaffirm that Pakistan’s innovation landscape is evolving with strength and purpose”.

NIC Karachi, established in 2018 at NED University, Karachi, is an Ignite-funded incubation center operated by LMKT and Lucky Landmark Pvt Ltd in partnership with Orbit Startups.

Startups raised approximately $74.2 million in reported funding in 2025, almost double the funds mobilised in 2024. The increase came in line with fundraising through hybrid financing models (combination of equity and debt), replacing the previous equity-only funding approach, according to invest2innovate (i2i), the firm that works to help build up the startup ecosystem in Pakistan.

The change in fundraising approach helped a number of startups belonging to different sectors of the economy to receive much-needed financing last year, emerging on the business horizon in the country including logistics, healthtech, transportation, entertainment, and wedding tech with additional undisclosed deals in sports tech and software as a service (SaaS)/cloud computing.

Also read: US tech firm AutoAcquire AI acquires Pakistani AI startup Virtuans in seven-figure deal

Speaking to Business Recorder on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of a 2-year i2i ecosystem project supported by Visa Foundation titled ‘Ecosystem Signals 2026’, i2i CEO Sarah Munir said, “For 2026 and onwards, as macroeconomic conditions improve and investor confidence slowly returns, we expect funding to remain selective and efficiency-driven, with greater emphasis on hybrid financing structures, revenue-backed growth models, and capital-efficient startups. The ecosystem is entering a phase where more disciplined capital deployment and diversified funding pathways could create a healthier, more sustainable investment environment”.

Speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Where Capital Goes Next in 2026’, at the ceremony; i2i Ventures co-founder Misbah Naqvi said bilateral/multilateral creditors and development finance institutions (DFIs) were interested in supporting the development of ecosystem for startups in Pakistan.

These institutions could play a key role in making the finances available to startups, work on guarantees and “come to a structure where the first risk is mitigated by a third party, and not by inherently the actual business model”, according to Naqvi.

She said even banks were opening up their balance-sheet to startups and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) with the condition of submission of collateral (guarantees) by startups, as they continued to operate with a traditional mindset that is their right.

Moreover, venture debt - another type of capital - is also an opportunity for startups to access, according to Naqvi.

“We do not have venture debt as such in Pakistan. There are some regional players that have invested in Pakistani startups…they [startups in Pakistan] have access to venture debt through them [investors] which is dollar dominated debt.”

However, in that case, most of local startups might face the question of repaying the debt, as “they do not have earnings in foreign currencies like in the US dollar”, she added.

Hybrid financing replaces equity-only funding model

The CEO Munir further said Pakistani startups raised approximately $74.2 million in reported funding in 2025, almost double the funds raised in 2024.

“This is a notable shift from the previous year not just in size but in structure. The majority of this capital came through hybrid equity–debt deals, which accounted for roughly $66 million across 16 transactions, while pure equity funding totaled about $8.2 million.

“Notable raises included Haball’s $52 million hybrid round, along with funding secured by MedIQ, Qist Bazaar, and BusCaro,“ she said.

Pakistan startups raised around $33.5 million in 2024, largely driven by equity-only financing.

“While current funding levels remain well below the $350+ million peaks of 2021–2022, the 2025 figures signal a meaningful recovery and a growing shift toward more diversified financing structures in Pakistan’s startup ecosystem,” CEO Munir said.

Meanwhile, i2i Growth & Strategy Deputy Director Aleena Khan said hybrid financing (equity + debt) had risen from merely $1 million in 2024 to $66 million in 2025, accounting for 89% of total funds raised at $74.2 million in 2025.

She further said e-commerce funding had collapsed, falling from the largest funded sector in 2024 at 55.2% of capital to a negligible share in 2025.

Khan informed that female founded startups secured 31% of deals in 2025, up from 13% in 2024, signaling improved access, “though their share of capital slipped to 14% from 16%, underscoring a persistent scale gap”.

“Funding to female-founded or cofounded startups nearly doubled, increasing from $5.5 million in 2024 to $10.1 million in 2025…Higher deal participation did not translate into proportional capital, indicating smaller average deal sizes for female-founded startups,” she said.

Against this backdrop, PinkDetect emerges not just as a technological fix, but as a deeply contextual response to a problem rooted as much in society as in science.

It is founded by Suha Suleman Lalani, a biomedical science graduate from Ryerson University and currently pursuing her master’s in public health at Harvard. During her tenure at Microsoft, Suha led generative AI initiatives for healthcare and life sciences clients, where she discovered the transformative potential of technology in saving lives. Inspired by this vision along with her personal grief, she created PinkDetect, Pakistan’s first-of-its-kind solution, designed to revolutionise breast health by early detection, and accessible care.

After experiencing the loss of a loved one to breast cancer, Suha was confronted firsthand with the devastating cost of late detection. What followed was not just the creation of an app, but the building of an ecosystem designed to help women understand their breast cancer risk early before symptoms escalate into life-threatening realities.

At its core, the platform blends artificial intelligence with local data, ethical design, and community-based outreach, attempting to shift breast health from crisis response to preventive care.

Technology built for Pakistani women

What sets PinkDetect apart is how deliberately it is grounded in local realities. Traditional breast cancer risk models, such as the Gail Model, are largely developed using Western datasets and often fail to reflect the biological, social, and lifestyle patterns of women in South Asia.

“The Gail Model didn’t work for us —it was built for Western, Caucasian women. Pakistani women were invisible in that data. So we built our own approach,” Suha explained.

PinkDetect’s AI-driven risk assessment model addresses this gap by training on locally relevant demographic and health data. By leveraging a large language model trained on contextual information, the platform analyses structured questionnaire responses to determine whether a woman falls into a low, moderate, or high-risk category.

Users begin by completing a structured questionnaire that covers menstrual history, reproductive milestones, family history of breast or ovarian cancer, and general health indicators. The AI then generates a personalised risk profile, categorising users into low, moderate, or high risk groups. But the platform does not stop at clarification. Based on a user’s risk level, PinkDetect offers tailored guidance, including automated reminders for regular self-exams, step-by-step tutorials illustrated with simple visuals, and symptom-tracking tools that allow women to monitor changes over time.

For women flagged at high risk, the platform bridges the often fragmented gap between awareness and care by directing them to nearby diagnostic facilities. In doing so, it transforms a digital assessment into a tangible pathway toward clinical intervention.

A clinical study published in the Pakistan Journal of Health found that early detection rates in clinics and hospitals using PinkDetect increased from 41% to 58%, marking a significant improvement in the odds of diagnosing breast cancer at earlier, more treatable stages.

Moving beyond app: Breaking social barriers

Yet technology alone cannot dismantle the deeply entrenched social barriers that surround women’s health in Pakistan. In many communities, conversations around breast health remain taboo, compounded by limited access to healthcare facilities and digital tools.

“In our focus groups, many women compared mammograms to something that would compromise their morality,” Suha said. “There were widespread misconceptions—that breast cancer is contagious, that it should be kept quiet, or that it can be passed from mother to daughter. This culture of silence made it difficult even to convince women to undergo free clinical breast exams.”

Recognising this, PinkDetect deliberately expanded its work beyond the app itself.

One arm of the initiative focuses on screening camps, organised in partnership with local organisations. These camps provide free clinical breast examination while also creating safe spaces for women to learn how to conduct self-exams. The emphasis is not just on screening, but on translating awareness into habit, encouraging women to take ownership of their health in ways that feel practical and achievable.

The second arm, which is trained in the trainer programme, works at the grassroots level. PinkDetects train lady health workers at the district and community levels, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to educate women directly in their homes. These health workers go door-to-door, teaching breast self-examination techniques and, where possible, guiding women on how to use the PinkDetect application. Designed to create a ripple effect, the programme enables a single trained health worker to reach dozens of households, making breast health education accessible to women with no prior experience with digital healthcare tools.

Ethical AI and design with dignity

From the outset, PinkDetect has been shaped by ethical considerations. User data is collected anonymously. A critical safeguard in a context where fear of exposure can prevent women from seeking care. This commitment allows the platform to generate meaningful population-level insights without compromising individual dignity.

The app’s design language is equally intentional. Instead of graphic imagery that can provoke discomfort or resistance, PinkDetect relies on cartoon-based animations to demonstrate self-examination techniques. By prioritising comfort, clarity, and consent, the platform reframes breast health as an act of self-care rather than fear.

When early detection saves lives

The impact of PinkDetect becomes most visible when awareness turns into action. At one screening camp, approximately 35 women were examined and four were diagnosed with abnormalities. One case was identified as stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma. Doctors noted that, without early detection, it could have progressed to stage 3, significantly reducing survival outcomes.

Crucially, PinkDetect does not abandon women after diagnosis.

Through partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and international organisations, including Western Union, the Roddenberry Foundation, Harvard Innovation Labs, and Future Trust—the initiative provides support to these women.

In one case, the PinkDetect team helped connect a diagnosed patient with donors who covered her chemotherapy costs. At the time of reporting, she had completed multiple treatment cycles and was responding well—an outcome that underscores the life-saving potential of pairing early detection with sustained support.

The initiative has also pushed boundaries of inclusion. In collaboration with the Binae Education Foundation, PinkDetect conducted Karachi’s first-ever breast cancer awareness workshop for visually impaired women, adapting educational tools to ensure no community remains invisible.

Between innovation and reality

As PinkDetect scales, expanding partnerships across Sindh and Punjab, developing a discreet WhatsApp based chatbot, and introducing tools to help women differentiate between normal lactation-related pain and potential cancer symptoms—it stands at a critical intersection.

The initiative demonstrates what becomes possible when artificial intelligence listens before it intervenes, adapts to lived realities, and works alongside communities rather than above them. At the same time, it exposes the limits of innovation within a healthcare system constrained by fragile infrastructure and persistent stigma.

According to Suha, the mindset around breast cancer awareness in Pakistan is gradually changing.

“Reaching 50,000 women wouldn’t have been possible without the gradual shift in awareness” Suha said. “They start asking questions, seeking to learn more. During one of our camps one woman approached me and said ‘I live nearby, I’ll bring my daughter and sister too.’ It is inspiring to see how open women are becoming to seeking knowledge.”

That moment, she explained, marked a shift.

“That’s when I realised we weren’t just reaching individuals, we were creating a ripple effect, where knowledge was being passed from one generation of women to the next.”

Woman behind the work

Suha has a rare ability to translate complex community health challenges into actionable, tech-based solutions without losing sight of the human stories beneath the data.

She has positioned the initiative as more than a startup. It is a catalyst, reshaping how breast health is understood, discussed, and acted upon in Pakistan.

What PinkDetect ultimately offers is not a silver bullet, but a framework: one where innovation is rooted in empathy, technology is guided by ethics, and early detection becomes not a privilege, but a possibility.

The acquisition, valued at seven figures USD in a combination of cash and equity, comes less than two years after Virtuans launched operations, which is a testament to the calibre of AI innovation emerging from Pakistan, read a statement.

Meanwhile, both founders, Raheel and Mudassar, have been appointed to leadership positions at AutoAcquire.

Virtuans AI developed autonomous conversational agents capable of handling sales and customer support functions across businesses.

“We built Virtuans with the belief that AI agents should not just respond to queries, but truly understand context, learn from interactions, and deliver outcomes that match or exceed human performance,” said Muddassar Sharif, co-founder of Virtuans AI.

“This acquisition validates that vision and opens doors to apply our technology at a much larger scale in one of America’s biggest markets.”

Meanwhile, Raheel Ahmad, co-founder of Virtuans AI, expressed that the acquisition “sends a strong signal” that Pakistani AI talent can build world-class technology, attract US companies, and take leading roles in global tech firms.

AutoAcquire AI, led by auto software industry veteran Anthony Monteiro, aims to transform how automotive dealerships acquire vehicles in the United States, unifying targeting, offers, inspections, logistics, and fraud protection into a single AI-driven platform.

“Virtuans has built an impressive foundation in intelligent automation and AI agent development,” said Anthony Monteiro, CEO at AutoAcquire AI.

“By bringing their expertise into AutoAcquire AI, we are expanding our ability to deliver agentic AI solutions that can operate proactively, communicate naturally, and drive real outcomes for dealers looking to scale acquisition efficiently.”

The acquisition positions Virtuans’ agentic AI technology at the heart of AutoAcquire’s efforts to disrupt the $1 trillion U.S. used car market.

A milestone for Pakistan’s tech ecosystem

Virtuans believes that the deal represents more than just a business transaction – it signals growing international recognition of Pakistan’s AI capabilities.

While Pakistani software developers have long contributed to global technology companies, this acquisition demonstrates that Pakistani founders can build proprietary AI platforms that command attention from established American acquirers.

“For a nation working to establish itself as a hub for technology innovation, the Virtuans acquisition offers proof that Pakistani startups can compete at the highest levels of the global AI industry,” read the statement.

According to a statement, the startup, founded by Alexander Epure and Usama Nini, will use the new funding to further develop Qureos’ AI capabilities, expand its go-to-market team, and accelerate geographic expansion through enterprise and agency partnerships.

Talking to Business Recorder, Co-Founder Usama Nini, who is originally from Pakistan, informed that while Qureos is headquartered in Dubai and operates across the Middle East, the company has built a meaningful operational presence in Pakistan as part of its global delivery model.

“Over the past few years, Qureos has invested in building and scaling its team in Pakistan, tapping into the country’s growing pool of technical and operational talent,” said Nini.

The co-founder believes that this distributed setup allows the company to operate efficiently at scale while serving enterprise and public sector clients across MENA and beyond.

“As Qureos expands into new markets, the Pakistan-based team remains an important part of the company’s operational engine, supporting rapid growth and platform performance,” he added.

The startup was built around a simple insight that hiring is not slow because of volume alone. “It is slow because it is fragmented,” says Qureos as recruiters juggle disconnected tools across sourcing, screening, and interviewing, while candidates move through the process with little clarity or feedback.

Whereas Qureos, an AI-driven hiring platform, treats hiring as a single system rather than a sequence of manual steps.

The startup says that its demand has surged as enterprises increasingly use the platform to run high-volume and time-sensitive hiring, compressing hiring timelines from months to as little as six days.

“Hiring at scale is one of the most operationally complex challenges facing modern organisations,” said Robin Voogd, Head of Middle East Investments at Prosus Ventures.

“Qureos has built a practical, end-to-end system that replaces fragmented recruitment workflows with a single, intelligent platform. By unifying sourcing, screening, and interviewing, the company enables employers to hire faster without sacrificing quality, a critical advantage in high-growth, time-sensitive markets.”

At the centre of that system is Iris, Qureos’ AI assistant that acts as the interface between companies and candidates throughout the hiring process. For employers and recruitment agencies, Iris functions as an AI recruiter assistant, automating sourcing, screening, and interviewing while continuously optimising for speed and quality.

On the candidate side, Iris matches individuals to relevant roles across the broader job market, allowing candidates to gain early visibility into aligned opportunities and receive role-specific feedback that helps them engage with the right opportunities from the outset.

On the employer side, Qureos automates the full recruitment workflow.

Hasan Haider, Founder and Managing Partner at Plus VC, said: “Qureos is solving a deeply operational problem with real, measurable impact. By dramatically reducing time-to-hire while improving recruiter productivity and candidate experience, the company is redefining how modern organisations approach talent acquisition.”

Hiring speed is becoming one of the most decisive competitive advantages for modern companies, said Alexander Epure, Co-Founder and CEO of Qureos.

“The organisations that win are the ones that can identify the right candidates and move decisively. We built Qureos to help employers and candidates meet in the middle, with a system that improves with every hire,” he said.

“Many units are operating below capacity or are close to shutdown as production costs can no longer be absorbed or passed on to the market,” SME sector expert Syed Raza Hussain said while talking to Business Recorder.

Hussain said SMEs are suffering from a severe liquidity crunch.

“Limited access to affordable financing and working capital has restricted their ability to procure raw materials, upgrade machinery, and maintain operations.

“The State Bank of Pakistan must play a proactive role by introducing dedicated, subsidised SME financing packages with easy terms and long term tenures to support productivity and capacity enhancement,” he said.

Also read: Govt focusing on expanding SMEs’ access to credit

The sector expert was of the view that the current taxation policy has further intensified these challenges.

“Additional tax burdens, including taxation on incremental or notional profits in an already depressed business environment, have increased frustration and demoralisation among SME owners.

“Weak demand, low production, and rising costs combined with heavier taxation are discouraging investment rather than promoting growth.”

According to Hussain, “aggressive and complex” enforcement approach of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has created “uncertainty and pressure” on the industrial and business community, undermining confidence and long term planning.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industry (HCST&SI) former president Muhammad Farooq Shaikhani said Pakistan can promote the SME sector by ensuring easy access to finance, affordable energy, simplified taxation, and technical training.

“Small traders and small industries are the backbone of vehicle manufacturing and supply chains. The Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industry continuously supports its members through advocacy, policy dialogue, and business facilitation to strengthen this sector.

“Every vehicle assembled reflects the contribution of multiple small industries supplying parts and services. Small traders and small industries ensure economic circulation at the grassroots level,” he said.

Also read: No fresh registrations: SMEs forced to run businesses with unregistered title: KTBA

Commenting on sick units, he said many SMEs across Pakistan are currently sick due to high costs, policy instability, and lack of financial support.

“These enterprises can be revived through debt restructuring, interest free loans, tax relief, and capacity building,” Shaikhani maintained.

According to a statement, the funding round also saw participation from Pioneer Fund, Conjunction, Moment Ventures and angel investors from Silicon Valley.

Founded by Zaid Qureshi and Hammad Malik, former Apple and Amazon engineers, Uplift AI develops voice AI models for regional languages like Urdu, Punjabi, and Balochi — so people can use technology by just speaking in their local language.

The startup flagship model, Orator, speaks Urdu with human-like realism.

The company shared that the startup is gaining traction among developers and small businesses, with 1,000+ developers building with their APIs — from students creating FIR registration bots to entrepreneurs building health intake systems for rural clinics.

The startup believes that voice-first technology is key for Pakistan, where 42% of adults cannot read, which holds back the country economically.

“Voice technology has the potential to uplift our entire GDP by giving everyone access to knowledge and opportunity. We founded Uplift AI to make this happen now, rather than in the distant future,” said Hammad Malik, CEO, Uplift AI.

Backing the startup, Aatif Awan, Partner at Indus Valley Capital, believes that voice is the primary gateway to the digital economy in emerging markets. “Built by former Apple and Amazon engineers, Uplift AI is delivering the foundational voice AI infrastructure to unlock this massive opportunity.“

For the industries serving mass markets — banking, healthcare, agriculture, government — voice-first technology will unlock a market that text-based solutions cannot address.

“In Pakistan, agriculture doesn’t lack effort — it lacks accessible intelligence. Uplift AI’s voice technology lets us deliver that intelligence to farmers in their own language at scale. This has enabled us to lead the market in helping farmers increase yield by adopting AI,” said Sultan Raja, Head of AI Transformation, Syngenta Pakistan.

Zaid Qureshi, CTO of Uplift AI, says that the startup built everything in-house, from data gathering, labelling, and training, because off-the-shelf solutions always compromise on regional languages.

“Our approach is paying off — it’s heartening to get emails from customers telling us they find our model quality to be better than OpenAI and Google for these languages,“ he said.

With this funding, Uplift AI plans to bring voice-first technology to every language in Pakistan.

While the company sees itself as a global player specialising in voice technology for small regional languages, “in the short to medium term, Pakistan will remain our only focus,” Aatif told Business Recorder.

Hammad Malik, CEO of Uplift AI, said that around $1 million will be utilised on data gathering and labelling, which is expected to create thousands of jobs in Pakistan. “The rest will be used to do R&D to develop state-of-the-art speech understanding and speech generation models for the five major Pakistani languages.”

Hammad shared that Uplift AI is not yet engaging with government departments but noted that its platform is already accessible to startups and small businesses.

“Over 1,000 developers already use our API. Any startup or small business can sign up and start using our API right now.”

The three-day Expo, being organized by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) under the supervision of the Ministry of Industries & Production, features cluster-based pavilions and exhibitor stalls, and a platform for B2B, B2G and B2I matchmaking, policy dialogues, technical sessions and an SME Awards Ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, SAPM Haroon Akhtar Khan said the inaugural “Made in Pakistan - SME Cluster Showcase Expo 2026” is envisioned as Pakistan’s flagship national platform to showcase the strength, diversity and export readiness of SME clusters from across the country. He noted that the Expo would prove to be a shift toward cluster-based and data-driven SME development in line with the economic development vision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. “The initiative is designed to present MSMEs coherently to the market and systematically link them with sourcing, investment and institutional support.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

Talking to Business Recorder, a board member of eight entities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Qaiser Noor said Pakistani financial technology companies had strong domestic traction, yet few scale internationally or reach unicorn valuation.

“The constraints are structural rather than purely entrepreneurial.”

While illustrating his views about bolstering up businesses internationally, Noor said the market size and revenue ceilings were limited.

“Pakistan has over 120 million adults, but digital payments usage remains below 40%, and average revenue per user is among the lowest in Asia. Most companies generate less than 5 dollars per user per year, compared to more than 50 dollars in markets such as India and Indonesia. This restricts valuation expansion.”

Secondly, he continued, “capital depth is insufficient”.

“Venture funding into Pakistan peaked near $350 million in 2021, then fell by more than 60% by 2023. In contrast, India consistently attracts more than $10 billion annually. Late stage capital, which is essential for international scaling, is largely absent.”

Noor further emphasised that regulatory exportability in Pakistan was weak.

“Many Pakistani platforms are built around domestic payment rails and local compliance rules. They are not designed for cross border licensing, data localisation requirements, or multi-currency settlement, which limit entry into the Gulf Cooperation Council, Southeast Asia, and Europe.”

Also read: Fintech revolution: Pakistani startups push beyond borders to capture global clients

According to Noor, global go to market capability is missing in Pakistan, as he believes successful unicorns invest early in international leadership, partnerships, and compliance infrastructure.

“Pakistani founders often remain domestically focused and expand too late. They need to scale up their international leadership.

“Eosystem signaling is weak. Global investors back markets with repeated exits and large listings. Pakistan has seen very few billion dollar technology exits, whereas companies such as Stripe scaled early through global regulation ready products and deep institutional funding.

“To create unicorns, Pakistani financial technology companies must design globally from day 1, raise larger regional funds, align with international regulators, and target higher value enterprise and cross border use cases rather than low margin domestic volumes,” Noor said.

Pakistan’s fintech sector has demonstrated strong early momentum, yet scaling internationally and producing unicorns remains a challenge. With over 450 fintech startups raising approximately $390 million in cumulative funding, Pakistan still lags behind regional peers in producing globally scaled fintech champions, according to Omair Ansari, CEO and Co-founder at ABHI.

“The challenge is not a lack of innovation, but limited global scalability by design. Many fintechs are built to solve local problems without embedding cross-border compliance, international payments infrastructure, or multi-market regulatory readiness from day one,” he said. “Expansion beyond Pakistan often requires costly rebuilds rather than seamless replication, even as digital channels now process 88% of retail transactions.”

He mentioned that another key constraint was capital depth and investor risk appetite.

“While fintech remains one of the most funded startup sectors in Pakistan, annual funding volumes are small compared with regional ecosystems. For example, Singapore dominated with 84% of regional inflows, capturing $725 million across deals in payments, insurtech, and AI-driven assets, while Pakistan attracted just $52.5 million in the first half of 2025.”

“In the same period, Southeast Asia saw $1.4 billion in fintech investment,” he further said. “Macroeconomic volatility, currency depreciation, and shorter funding runways further restrict long-term growth, a critical factor for achieving unicorn-level scale.”

ABHI CEO pointed out that Pakistan’s fintech ecosystem was still maturing in enterprise partnerships and embedded finance models. Globally successful fintechs scale by embedding themselves into payroll, supply chains, and platforms, not just consumer acquisition, according to Ansari.

“At ABHI, we focus on compliance-first, infrastructure-led solutions that can operate across geographies. With regulatory alignment and global-ready products, Pakistani fintechs are positioned not just to compete, but to define the next generation of inclusive financial infrastructure,” he further said.

Also read: Pakistani fintech Neem secures Pre-Series A funding from Epic Angels, global investors

Computer Society of Pakistan Chairman and Ovex technologies Pakistan Executive Director Tahir Mahmood Chaudhry was of the view that Pakistani financial technology firms could grow beyond local borders by first fixing three core gaps including capital depth, regulatory clarity, and talent-cum-infrastructure. “About 47% of the population lacks internet, and brain drain reduces skilled engineers, while low digital literacy limits user adoption.”

To become unicorns, Chaudhry suggested, firms must attract larger Series B/C rounds (fifty to one hundred million dollars), secure cross‑border licences, and partner with regional banks to tap markets such as the Middle East and North Africa.

Joining the Pre-Series A investment round alongside Epic Angels are DNI Group, Hi2 Global, AKD, supported by existing seed investors including SparkLabs Ventures, Outrun Ventures, Arif Habib, and MyAsiaVC, as well as strategic angels from Stripe, PayNet, Aspire, and other global fintech and payments leaders, according to a company statement.

Neem, however, did not disclosed the amount raised.

Talking to Business Recorder, Neem’s co-founder, Vladimira Briestenska, said that Epic Angels invested in the fintech as it is building foundational financial infrastructure in a large, under-digitised market at exactly the right moment.

“Neem stood out for its full-stack platform, combining collections, disbursements, and branded wallets and ledger system, and its early enterprise traction across logistics, insurance, and e-commerce.

“Beyond the market opportunity, Epic Angels had strong conviction in Neem’s experienced founding team, including the leadership of a strong woman founder, and the team’s ability to execute at scale,” she said.

Founded by Vladimira Briestenska, Nadeem Shaikh, and Naeem Zamindar, Neem commercially went to market in January 2025. The platform has scaled rapidly, growing transaction volumes by over 30% month-on-month, and currently supports 50+ B2B businesses across logistics, insurance, healthcare, e-commerce, and agriculture.

According to the company, Pakistan’s payments ecosystem remains highly fragmented, with businesses often relying on multiple payment providers to collect revenue, pay vendors, and manage payroll. This results in operational inefficiencies, manual reconciliation, and limited real-time financial visibility for enterprises and SMEs across key sectors of the economy.

“Neem is addressing these challenges by building a full-stack payments platform that enables collections, disbursements, and branded wallets through a single API, similar to how modern payments infrastructure platforms operate in more developed markets,” the company said.

Briestenska noted that Neem’s growth strategy is focused on winning large enterprises by offering an integrated infrastructure layer rather than isolated payment use cases.

“While many players in Pakistan focus on isolated use cases, such as collections only or consumer wallets, Neem is differentiated as a full-stack payment infrastructure provider that unifies collections, disbursements, and branded enterprise wallet and ledger systems.

“This approach resonates strongly with large businesses that currently juggle multiple providers to manage revenue, payouts to multiple stakeholders, payroll, and reconciliation.

By integrating deeply into enterprise workflows and offering a single, compliant infrastructure layer, Neem reduces operational complexity and becomes increasingly embedded and difficult to replace.”

She added that this enterprise-led strategy allows Neem to consolidate its share in a fragmented market and scale organically through expansion within existing client ecosystems.

On geographic expansion, Briestenska said Neem remains firmly focused on Pakistan as its core growth engine.

“At the same time, Neem is selectively exploring adjacent, use-case-driven expansion, particularly in areas such as cross-border remittance rails that naturally extend from its existing platform and enterprise relationships.

“The strategy is to build depth locally first, while laying the groundwork for scalable, cross-border flows where there is clear regulatory alignment and commercial demand.”

The funds raised will be used to scale Neem’s technology infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity and data protection, expand enterprise partnerships, and accelerate onboarding across key sectors, including logistics, insurance, healthcare, e-commerce, and agriculture.

Explaining Epic Angels’ investment motive, Maaike Doyer, Founding and Managing Partner at Epic Angels, said global payments giants remain concentrated in developed markets, leaving substantial room in emerging economies.

“Big players like Stripe and Adyen collectively hold less than 10% of the global payments market and are focused on established markets, leaving a massive opportunity for local platforms like Neem.”

“With large enterprises across logistics, insurance, and agriculture already signed, Neem is well-positioned to become the financial operating system powering Pakistan’s digital economy.”

Epic Angels support early-stage, female-led startups in APAC (Asia-Pacific) and LATAM (Latin America) with capital, mentoring and a global network. The network counts over 800 female angel investors and has made 44 investments to date across industries.

Addressing at a press conference here, he linked sustainable economic growth to the strengthening of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), saying that MSMEs are the backbone of national economy and essential for achieving sustainable GDP growth of 6–7 percent.

The SAPM stated that to put the country on the path of sustainable economic growth, the present government has taken a number of steps of which the mainstreaming of SMEs is the most critical component. The SMEs are the only sector that can handle increasing unemployment especially among women in far flung areas of the country. Micro, small and medium enterprises’ growth is must for sustainable economic growth. There are some 7 million micro, small and medium enterprises in Pakistan.

He said that now Pakistan’s large scale manufacturing (LSM) has also started registering growth and the government in coming months will further facilitate the industrial sector by reducing power tariff, which will further improve the situation.

Government is also working on rationalising taxation to streamline regulatory and customs duties. He said that during past few years, over 18 auto mobile manufacturers have invested in Pakistan. To further promote made in Pakistan the government has introduced mobile manufacturing policy and vaccines production policy. Moreover, the ministry will soon introduce solar plates production and battery storage production policy. Auto policy is being drafted, semi-conductors will be produced in Pakistan. He said that the prime minister himself is overseeing SMEDA policy. Access to credit for small-scale businesses will be made easier and all hurdles will be addressed for which the government has started Collaboration with Akhuwat Foundation.

Ministry of Industries and Production has held meetings with 32 women chambers so that the untapped and hidden potential of the national economy could be made productive.

Transportation is also not up to the mark and to solve this problem ministry of railway is making efforts and this will resolve freight related issues as railway freight train can better handle it and this will reduce costs. Special pavilions are being established for women entrepreneurs and micro businesses. He said, the three-day expo will be held at the Lahore Expo Centre from January 24 to 26 to showcase the country’s untapped entrepreneurial and industrial potential and bring together thousands of MSMEs from the country. International delegates from Azerbaijan, Kenya, and Malaysia will also attend, enhancing global exposure for Pakistani SMEs.

He said the Expo would feature a wide range of sectors including sports goods, gems and jewellery, surgical instruments, cutlery, textiles, garments, leather goods, auto parts, household appliances, plastics, agri-based products, cosmetics, packaging, handicrafts and light engineering, with a separate pavilion dedicated to women entrepreneurs.

He said multilateral institutions including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) had acknowledged the stabilisation, while improved performance of the stock exchange reflected restored investor confidence. The Special Assistant said policy interest rates had been reduced from 22 percent to 10.5 percent, inflation had declined to around 4–5 percent, and power tariffs had been brought down from Rs 42 to around Rs 34–35 per unit, with further reductions expected.

He said government was finalising a comprehensive industrial policy, focusing on access to credit, bankruptcy reforms, restructuring of sick units, export promotion and ease of doing business.

The Special Assistant said several sectoral policies were also in the pipeline, including a National Tariff Policy, Gems and Jewellery policy, Mobile phone manufacturing policy, Vaccine manufacturing policy, Solar and battery storage policy, Auto and home appliances policies, and initiatives for semiconductors and agri-food industries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

The idea is to allow regional innovators to interact with global investors, policymakers, and industry leaders.

The challenge is open to startups operating in high-impact sectors, including Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, FinTech, Climate & GreenTech and HealthTech.

READ MORE: Pathfinder CITADEL DAVOS Startup Challenge presents a chance to pitch at World Economic Forum 2026

AgriTech, DeepTech & Industry 4.0, CyberTech and EdTech are also included.

According to a press release, startups selected for the CITADEL Jeddah Startup Challenge will gain access to global investors and international exposure; visibility at a premier diplomatic and economic forum; structured mentorship and acceleration support; cross-border market entry opportunities and strategic positioning among leading global innovators.

Applications are currently open. Submissions will close on February 4, 2026.

Addressing the Joint Pakistan–Azerbaijan Women Entrepreneurship Dialogue here on Monday, Haroon said that women have transformed limited resources into opportunities, bringing about a quiet but powerful revolution in Pakistan’s economy. He noted that from rural areas to urban centers, women are actively contributing to business, industry, and trade, strengthening communities and value chains across the country.

Referring to the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he emphasized that national progress is impossible without the active participation of women. He reiterated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s consistent stance that women are the architects of society and the true drivers of the national economy.

SAPM Haroon Akhtar Khan acknowledged the outstanding contributions of women across education, healthcare, business, and public service, stating that Pakistani women have proven their capabilities and leadership in diverse sectors. At the same time, he candidly recognized the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, including limited access to finance, digital tools, and international markets. Despite these challenges, he said, women continue to move forward with patience, creativity, and resilience. He stressed that the government of Pakistan is transforming women’s economic inclusion from a mere aspiration into a national economic strategy, with a clear focus not only on inclusion but on leadership, scale, and global competitiveness.

He informed the audience that the Ministry of Industries and Production, with SMEDA as its key implementation arm, is actively strengthening women-led enterprises. SMEDA is providing training, mentoring, advisory services, market access support, and business development facilitation for women entrepreneurs. Its three-year business plan includes targeted initiatives specifically designed to support women-owned businesses.

The SAPM further shared that SME financing schemes are being aligned to create greater ease for women entrepreneurs in accessing credit and growth capital. He announced that Pakistan is preparing to launch its first-ever National Women Entrepreneurship Policy, a landmark initiative that will place women entrepreneurs at the center of economic planning. He added that the National Industrial Policy accords central importance to women entrepreneurs, recognizing them as key drivers of productivity, exports, and economic competitiveness. Increased participation of women, he said, will significantly boost production, exports, and overall economic resilience.

Welcoming the collaboration between the Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Azerbaijan Pakistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SAPM described it as a positive step toward strengthening bilateral trade and investment through women-led enterprises.

He noted that women can play a vital role in expanding cooperation in sectors such as textiles, agriculture, IT, tourism, and creative industries. He also emphasized that Women Chambers of Commerce are no longer symbolic bodies but have emerged as effective institutions driving economic reform and growth.

Present day woman entrepreneur, he said, is not seeking concessions but demanding equal access, fair opportunities, and a level playing field. Concluding his address, SAPM Haroon Akhtar Khan reaffirmed the government’s commitment to providing an enabling, inclusive, and globally competitive business environment for women.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

The WE Finance Code, coordinated under the global initiative known as Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), was launched by the World Bank in 2023.

The central bank officially joined the WE Finance Code in July 2025, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and under the leadership of the World Bank. The ADB partnered the initiative with a substantial $500 million financing programme to Pakistan.

‘We are building pathways that ensure women entrepreneurs could fully participate in and contribute to Pakistan’s economic growth’, said Saleem Ullah Deputy Governor, SBP, while addressing at the inaugural event of the Women Entrepreneurship Finance (WE-FI) Code Consultative Workshop, the central bank said in a statement on Friday.

Saleem Ullah said the SBP was committed to drive forward the agenda of promoting women entrepreneurship and their access to finance for building an inclusive and sustainable financial system, as outlined in its Strategic Plan 2028.

He also highlighted the central bank’s aim to advance women’s financial inclusion through Banking on Equality Policy and digital initiatives.

Read more: We-Finance Code: SECP, ADB hold industry familiarisation session

While access to financial services had improved, structural barriers continued to limit women entrepreneurs from getting formal credit, he shared.

The Code aims to dismantle the financial barriers faced by women-led businesses.

“As the lead implementing agency in Pakistan, SBP has mobilised a coalition of 23 financial institutions—including conventional, Islamic, and microfinance banks—alongside the Pakistan Banks Association, all united under the Code’s action-oriented framework,” the central bank said.

To kick-off the implementation of WE Finance Code in Pakistan, a two-day workshop was held by the SBP, in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB), in Islamabad, bringing together signatory banks, regulators and development partners to formulate a concrete national action plan.

The workshop concentrated on “actionable strategies for gender-intelligent product innovation, improved data collection and reporting, and strengthened credit appraisal mechanisms tailored to women-led enterprise”.

In this connection Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Industries and Production, Haroon Akhtar Khan, chaired a high-level meeting focusing on expanding access to credit and strengthening supply chain finance mechanisms across the country.

During the meeting, the CashNow Supply Chain Finance Think Tank delivered a detailed presentation on the current state of SME financing in Pakistan. The presentation highlighted key challenges faced by SMEs in accessing formal financing and proposed strategic measures to enhance credit availability and financial inclusion.

The meeting was informed that in Pakistan some five million SMEs are working but majority of the operators are not ready to register themselves with regulatory bodies and tax authorities, fearing after registration they may face harassment consequently they are also not applying for banking loans, moreover banking sector too remain hesitant in supplying credits to SMEs.

READ MORE: Over 400 SMEs take part in Mera Brand Pakistan Expo

Now the government wants to extend credit to the sector as the SMEs in other countries are playing a critical role economic growth. The SMEs credit is less than 2 percent of GDP in Pakistan as compared with 18 percent in other emerging markets.

The think tank noted that, compared to other emerging economies in the region, SME financing in Pakistan remains significantly low, underscoring the urgent need for structural reforms and innovative financial solutions.

Addressing the meeting, SAPM Haroon Akhtar Khan stated that the government is actively working to expand access to credit and financing for businesses. He emphasised that millions of SMEs are operating across Pakistan and that supply chain finance has become a critical necessity for their sustainability and growth.

He further observed that a majority of SMEs operate in the informal sector and often perceive formal financing as a hurdle rather than an opportunity. “Improved financing and lending facilities will empower SMEs, promote entrepreneurship, and accelerate business growth,” he said.

Highlighting the importance of inclusive economic development, the SAPM stressed that financing for the agricultural sector and farmers is equally vital for overall economic growth and stability.

READ MORE: EDITORIAL: SMEs, stabilisation, and missing growth bridge

Haroon Akhtar Khan also emphasised that banks must play a key role in extending loans to SMEs without unnecessary regulatory barriers, ensuring a more business-friendly and supportive financial environment. To ensure practical implementation, Haroon directed the Smeda to collaborate with CashNow in developing a comprehensive business plan for SME financing and supply chain support.

He further instructed Smeda to ensure the provision of financing and lending support mechanisms for all SMEs across the country. The meeting concluded with a reaffirmation of the government’s commitment to strengthening SME financing as a cornerstone of Pakistan’s economic growth and industrial development.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

The country’s startups closed 16 deals of which 11 were disclosed, with total reported funding of around S74.23 million comprising both the equity only deals of $8.18 million and hybrid finance of $ 66.04 million, the report said.

The year 2025 witnessed a sharp shift towards hybrid financing, in contrast to 2024 that remained equity-heavy amid prolonged funding drought conditions.

• Equity financing involves selling a stake in the company to investors in exchange for capital, which does not require repayment but dilutes the founders’ ownership and often gives investors a say in decision-making.
• Debt financing means borrowing money that must be repaid over time with interest, allowing founders to retain full ownership, though it creates fixed repayment obligations that can strain cash flows, especially in early stages.
• Hybrid financing combines elements of both equity and debt.

A total of 11 disclosed transactions were recorded across pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, along with five additional rounds with undisclosed or quiet ticket sizes. These included XpertFlow, Blink, VMNebula, Lean Outset, and Chrio.

The $74.23 million funding was primarily driven by large funding rounds such as Haball’s $52 million and MedIQ’s $6 million. These were complemented by seed-stage investments in BusCaro, Metric–Max CF-AI, ScholarBee, NewVative, Shadiyana, Qist Bazaar, and myco.io.

Read more: Pakistani fintech Haball secures $52mn funding to grow Islamic finance business, plans Middle East foray

Key startup sectors included fintech and healthtech, edtech, wedding-tech, sports tech, mobility, logistics, energy, internet of things (IoT), entertainment, and e-commerce.

The final quarter of 2025 proved to be a signal-setting period rather than a volume-driven one. While the headline deal count remained subdued and most of the $74.23 million in equity and hybrid financing had been deployed earlier in the year, the last quarter revealed decisive structural shifts.

Notably, new categories emerged as alternative debt and Shariah-compliant capital moved into the mainstream, while exits validated growth-to-liquidity pathways.

Female founders and mixed-gender teams remained central to the 2025 deal flow. Female-founded and co-founded startups—including Shadiyana, BusCaro, Metric, MedIQ, and Lean Outset—accounted for eight of the 11 disclosed deals. These spanned pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds across fintech, mobility, healthtech, and wedding-tech sectors.

Mehwish Salman Ali, Founder and CEO of Data Vault Pakistan and ZahanatAI, said the rise of women-led startups was an encouraging sign for the country’s entrepreneurial landscape, as “this trend will not only inspire more female professionals to launch startups but will also empower women employees within startups to unleash their talent with creativity and dedication”.

She added that women-driven initiatives were likely to introduce new ideas and generate sustainable economic activity across the country, extending beyond urban centers into rural areas.

“I am optimistic the trend will continue n 2026 and more female entrepreneurs will lead the startups, particularly in tech and artificial intelligence,” she remarked.

The final quarter also highlighted diversification in venture-scale financing. KalPay secured structured Shariah-compliant debt from Accelerate Prosperity, underscoring the shift of Shariah-compliant debt from a niche instrument to the mainstream.

This development positions debt financing as a viable structure for fintech startups, particularly in education and BNPL-focused ventures, expanding access to capital beyond traditional equity routes.

Meanwhile, Agrilift and Echooo AI—both backed by Accelerate Prosperity—reflected a parallel trend of debt financing diversification across non-fintech verticals, including agri-tech, climate-linked productivity, and creator economy infrastructure.

Collectively, these developments signal growing confidence in debt as a financing tool, enabling broader capital deployment across climate, agriculture, and digital services as the ecosystem moves toward 2026.

Azfar Hussain, Project Director at the National Incubation Center Karachi, said 2025 marked a period of correction and maturity for Pakistan’s startup ecosystem. He noted that capital became more selective, filtering out hype-driven ventures while strengthening founders focused on solving real-world problems.

Looking ahead, he said growth in 2026 would increasingly favour founders who invest in governance, product depth, and regional scalability rather than pursuing rapid expansion or vanity metrics. According to him, the ecosystem is entering a phase where business-first thinking outweighs fundraising-first narratives.

He further emphasised that startups with a strong understanding of compliance, balance sheets, and institutional collaboration would be best positioned, as capital would increasingly flow toward ventures combining impact, resilience, and commercial viability.

Last week, another think tank Data Darbar reported that startups in Pakistan had observed a modest recovery in equity funding during 2025, with capital raised climbing to $36.6 million from $22.5 million a year earlier, reflecting an increase of nearly 63%.

However, despite the uptick, funding levels remain well below historical peaks, as shown by data released by Data Darbar.

“Based on press or social media announcements, startups raised approximately $36.6 million in equity capital across 10 rounds, while four additional transactions did not disclose dollar values,” read the report.

According to the statement, the new service allows users to order daily essentials directly through the inDrive app, offering fast, reliable, and affordable grocery delivery in Karachi, with plans to expand to Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi in 2026.

“This launch is a step towards creating more opportunities for local businesses, delivery partners, and customers,” said Nurken Rzaliyev, Head of Q-Commerce Services at inDrive.

READ MORE: At inDrive, people always come before profits, says its Chief Ride Hailing Officer

“Our goal is to create an ecosystem where everyone can participate in and benefit from the digital economy”, Rzaliyev added.

Krave Mart Founder and CEO Kassim Shroff said our partnership with inDrive represents a major leap forward in how grocery delivery operates in Pakistan.

Together, we’re combining operational speed with technological reach to make 20-30 minutes grocery delivery the new standard for convenience, while offering customers the lowest prices every day, because convenience shouldn’t cost more”, Shroff added.

Data Darbar’s 2025 reports show disclosed equity funding remains well below the 2021-2022 peaks, but that view is incomplete. While equity volumes have compressed, another layer of capital has begun to appear: short-tenor, asset-backed private credit sourced from individuals and structured specifically for working capital constraints, not expansion.

Pakistan does not yet have a mature venture debt market. While 2025 disclosures increasingly reference hybrid structures, the debt portion is usually under-specified in public announcements, leaving pricing, tenor, security, and convertibility unclear. The facilities described here are different: sourced from individual investor networks, often Shariah-compliant, and secured against receivables, inventory, or revenue contracts.

Why This is Happening Now

The arithmetic has improved materially. After the policy rate peaked at 22%, the State Bank cut rates to 10.5% by late 2025. As KIBOR-linked rates fell, short-tenor credit dropped into the high teens, making the math tolerable for companies with predictable cash flows.

Banks rarely underwrite startup working capital risk, even for companies with real revenue and contracts. This leaves founders with few alternatives when cash conversion cycles stretch or inventory timing gaps collide with payroll.

Founders raise equity not to fund expansion but to manage receivables cycles, inventory timing, and cash gaps

“Debt isn’t more available or easier to raise in Pakistan—it barely exists for startups,” said Maha Shahzad, co-founder of Buscaro, a B2B mobility platform. “Banks remain largely unwilling to underwrite even companies with real revenue and contracts. In practice, that forces many founders to raise equity to cover working capital gaps, even when the business itself does not require expansion capital at that stage. If I had access to proper working capital facilities, I would not be diluting myself.”

Shahzad’s experience is not unusual. Founders raise equity not to fund expansion but to manage receivables cycles, inventory timing, and cash gaps. Equity becomes a blunt, expensive tool for what is fundamentally a cash timing problem. It is also permanent dilution in exchange for temporary liquidity. An 18% debt facility paid back in six months costs less than giving up 5% equity in a company that could 10x in value, but founders treat equity like it is free because the cost is deferred and invisible.

Why Banks Rarely Step In

Pakistan’s banking sector has limited structural appetite for startup lending. The reasons are institutional.

Regulatory capital treatment makes startup credit unattractive relative to government securities or large corporate lending. A bank can deploy its balance sheet into sovereign paper with favorable risk treatment rather than underwriting asset-light technology businesses.

Credit committees are optimised for collateral-based lending: factories, inventory, trade finance. Digital businesses with SaaS contracts or platform revenues do not fit these frameworks. A B2B SaaS company with $15,000 in monthly recurring revenue and 60-day receivables from enterprise clients can still look like vapor to a credit officer trained on manufacturing and trade.

The result is predictable: startups use equity to finance working capital, diluting ownership without needing expansion capital. This creates a vacuum. Private credit is stepping in to fill it, though at volumes commercial banks would never notice.

When Private Credit Actually Works

Whether private credit works for a startup comes down to pricing, cash flow quality, and enforceability. Most companies fail this test, but a meaningful minority now pass.

Private credit becomes viable only when three conditions align.

First, cash flows must be legible through receivables from credible counterparties, inventory turnover with predictable sell-through rates, or contract-backed revenues.

Second, unit economics must carry the cost. A logistics startup with PKR 3 million in monthly receivables from large corporate clients and a 45-day collection cycle can justify 18% debt. An early-stage consumer app with unpredictable revenues cannot.

Third, enforcement must be credible through documentation, covenants, and a realistic recovery path.

Companies that fail any one of these conditions typically revert to equity.

What the Market Actually Looks Like

These deals rarely appear in public trackers. Sarah Munir, CEO of invest2innovate, noted that “while overall equity volumes remain muted, more founders are experimenting with hybrid structures that combine equity with various forms of debt to address working capital needs.” In Q4 2025, only one disclosed equity transaction closed, while the remainder of deals tracked by i2i involved debt or hybrid structures. That ratio would have been unthinkable two years ago.

Pricing currently clusters between KIBOR+6 to KIBOR+10 for six- to twelve-month facilities, with outliers reaching KIBOR+12 for riskier counterparties and shorter-tenor arrangements.

Several ecosystem operators I’ve spoken with privately estimate that informal and semi-structured private credit deployments to startups exceed PKR 1 billion at any given time, though fragmentation and limited disclosure make precise measurement difficult. A negligible sum in Pakistan’s broader credit markets, but meaningful in a startup ecosystem where total disclosed equity funding in 2024 was approximately PKR 6.3 billion.

Some institutional investors, including venture funds with portfolio companies seeking PKR liquidity, have begun exploring structured credit options, though deployment remains limited and most activity still flows through individual investor networks.

Closing

As policy rates ease and more founders build businesses with predictable cash flows, short-tenor private credit will become easier to price and justify. Disclosure will lag reality, because most of these facilities will remain private and informal.

That gap between what is financed and what is reported distorts how Pakistan’s startup ecosystem is read. Equity announcements will continue to look weak. Survival and progress will increasingly be determined by access to working capital rather than growth capital.

At current scale, this market is too small and operationally complex for commercial banks to bother with. That’s why it will remain informal, opaque, and unmeasured. Anyone relying on equity data alone will continue misreading how Pakistan’s startups actually survive.

The program, by Ignite – National Technology Fund, under the Ministry of IT & Telecom, will run for one year.

It aims to reduce early-stage infrastructure costs, improve cloud utilization, and build a strong, sustainable cloud ecosystem for Pakistan through a tiered cloud reimbursement model, structured technical enablement, and collaboration with Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).

The programme will feature tier-based cloud cost reimbursements of up to 60% for startups as well as structured technical guidance to support cloud adoption and optimization.

READ MORE: Pakistan’s startup funding rises to $36.6mn in 2025, still below peak levels

Ignite said all startups can apply, not just those associated with its National Incubation Centres.

Startups can apply for the program till January 27.

In an exclusive interview with Business Recorder, he urged long-term investment in energy and infrastructure to allow the South Asian nation a meaningful participation in the AI economy.

Tariq, a Silicon Valley tech veteran who spent nearly six years at Uber, helping the global riding app build its in-house storage platform before leaving to develop Tigris Data with two other colleagues from Uber, shared his insights on the fascinating world of AI.

While noting that most cutting-edge AI development remains concentrated in the United States and China, he said Pakistan faces significant hurdles, including the high cost of GPUs [graphics processing unit] and the massive power requirements needed to support AI computing at scale.

“I think that Pakistan should invest there.”

Tariq believes any serious push into AI, being extremely energy intensive, would require sustained investment in clean and reliable energy sources, “whether looking at nuclear reactors or solar”.

The Karachi-born executive believes that investment in AI infrastructure would not be in vain.

“It’s going to help in upskilling the job, workforce and help improve education. There are so many positive benefits that can come out of here.”

However, he cautioned that AI infrastructure remains capital-heavy globally, with leading AI companies, i.e. OpenAI, spending billions of dollars annually on compute, storage, and networking.

“AI, as it stands today, is costly. It is becoming cost-efficient, but it has to become more cost-efficient. Right now, it’s in a place that requires quite a lot of capital investment.”

There has been a massive surge in AI in a relatively short time span, with major tech giants announcing massive investments. Elon Musk’s xAI announced a $20 billion data centre build in Mississippi, European AI startup Mistral securing a strategic deal with France’s military, and Amazon pledging up to $50 billion in AI and supercomputing investments. All these developments underscore the massive scale of AI rising.

Founded in 2021, Tigris Data focuses on data infrastructure for AI and machine learning workloads.

“A majority of our customers are AI companies here.”

The company, located in Silicon Valley, is currently in an expansion phase.

“We have been building data centres. We have been renting our space in power where we can install our hardware. So we need to expand that, and that, of course, requires substantial capital. That’s where it’s going to go.

“Then you also want to expand in Europe and Asia. That’s where we’ll spend,” he said.

On the global front, Tariq said the AI revolution is driving a shift toward distributed computing, creating new opportunities but also operational challenges.

For his company, though, the key challenge is not regulation but the speed at which infrastructure can be deployed, especially data centres and hardware, as demand for AI systems grows globally.

Offering advice to aspiring startups, particularly in Pakistan, Tariq stressed the importance of building products that solve real problems and that customers are willing to pay for.

“A lot of times, I see people build things without really understanding what the customer and market needs are. So do the right market research. Don’t start building things without understanding who is going to be your customer, who is going to give you the money, and who is going to actually buy your product. That’s the core of it.”

He encouraged entrepreneurs to leverage AI tools to accelerate learning, research, and product development.

“It’s so easy to build as well because of all of the AI assistance that the software provides these days. Use it to your advantage.”