A Pakistan-based fintech platform, NayaPay, has raised $13 million in one of the biggest seed rounds in South Asia.
Bringing together a varied combination of leading international institutional and angel investors, the round was headed by Zayn Capital, global fund manager MSA Novo and initial-stage VC Graph Ventures from Silicon Valley.
Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital and Warren Hogarth, Singapore-based Saison Capital, CEO Empower Finance, also took part in the round, along with a key investment from the supporters of the Lakson Group – a Pakistani multinational with interests in telecom, media, industrials, financial services along with monitoring stake in Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan and McDonald’s Pakistan.
Read more: Pakistani fintech CreditBook raises $11 million led by investment firm Tiger Global
Recently, the State Bank of Pakistan has given the first E-Money Institution license to NayaPay, the first fintech in Pakistan.
Moreover, NayaPay has a mission to make financial services simpler and reachable to millions of Pakistani users. It targets to be at the leading position in the digitization of Pakistan with its double-sided platform for the under banked.
CEO and founder of the company Danish A Lakhani remarked, “NayaPay is empowering young Pakistani adults starting their financial journey, from students stepping into adulthood to freelancers and entrepreneurs taking an active role in managing their finances. In many senses, it’s a coming-of-age moment for many and our goal is to continue to innovate and build functionality to become a part of their daily lives, for the rest of their lives.”
Lakhani revealed that NayaPay is the first organization of this nature to get an e-money license from the central bank, State Bank of Pakistan.
The fintech has initiated its chat-led fabulous app targeted mainly at freelancers and students.
In addition, the strategy of NayaPay’s platform will bind the network effects between customers and merchants, as perceived in platforms, like Square Cash/Square, AliPay, WeChat Pay, and Venmo in their native markets.
