Karachi based fintech firm Abhi has raised more than $2 million for their seed round in order to launch salary advance platform for employees.
According to a press statement issued by the startup, it has raised $2.1 million in a funding round led by VEF, the emerging market fintech investor, and Sarmayacar, the local lead and also included a number of international and local investors including Village Global, i2i Ventures, and Zayn Capital. This is Village Global’s first FinTech investment in Pakistan.
Read more: Pakistani fintech CreditBook secures $1.5 million in seed funding
Abhi is co-founded by Omair Ansari and Ali Ladhubhai that aims to transform the way people spend their money. They want to become the first and largest financial wellness platform in the country.
Co-founder Ansari noted, “We believe financial wellness and access to credit are basic human rights, which we aim to bring to all our customers. Our goal is to digitise consumer credit, address pain points in the manual payments process and be there when consumers need us most. Your wage is your right, and we want you to have access to it abhi (right now).”
“Before launching publicly, Abhi signed MOUs with 20 companies, and is currently conducting a three-month pilot programme with them,” the statement reads.
$2.1 million in seed funding for Abhi
It added that the exercise was centered around acquiring insights on the pain points of employees, their lending needs and what situations caused that need.
The statement also reads, “The companies taking part in the pilot come from sectors like insurance, steel manufacturing, pharmaceutical, textile and retail, allowing Abhi to validate the product as well as gather information for future growth metrics.”
Dave Nangle, Partner at VEF shared, “We are very excited to partner with Omair, Ali and the Abhi Team. This investment allows VEF to continue our mission of improving the financial well-being of the average Pakistani.”
Co-founder Ladhubhai said, “This is just the beginning for us. We have plans to provide a range of digital financial services to allow for customers to conduct all financial transactions from a single financial app.”
