1 – Pakistani Tech Startups Raised a Record $36 million in 2019
In 2019, investors poured $36 million into 14 Pakistani tech startups across 15 deals.
Highlights
💰 $36,140,000 — Total amount raised by 14 startups.
#️⃣ 15 — Number of deals during the year.
📊 534% — Year over year growth in funding.
📈 $2,409,333 — Average funding.
🚌 Transportation — Most funded category.
*VC or Angel-funded active startup founded or co-founded by a Pakistani and headquartered in Pakistan.
For the rest of the insights, please click here.
02 – News and Views
💻 Pakistan makes impressive strides in open source development (Business Recorder)
Pakistan witnessed a 41% growth on Github’s latest survey, ‘The State of the Octoverse,’ where it ranks open-source development around the world.
🗺️ How to Fix Pakistan’s Crashing Economy (NY Times)
Atif Mian, Professor of Economics at Princeton, opines in NY Times that what Pakistan needs is the courage to take bold steps and systemic changes across the board.
🌳 Small steps toward a greener Pakistan (LinkedIn)
Usman Gul, Co-founder of Airlift, talks about his plan to go green by incentivizing low-emission vehicles on the platform.
📡 ‘Digital Pakistan’ head vows to bring ‘technological revolution’ (Tribune)
Tania Aidrus, the head of the ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative, envisions a Pakistan where the Internet will be a basic human right.
🚌 Pakistan’s Mobility Landscape (i2i Insights)
A data deep dive with insights on the ever-growing mobility space.
03 – On The Pod
Waqas Ali and Sidra Qasim (Markhor) have an in-depth conversation with Carol Massar and Jason Kelly on Businessweek Extra podcast about their new shoe startup Atoms.
In August, their 2nd shoe startup raised $8.1 million in Series A funding.
iTunes | Spotify | PodBean | Megaphone
04 – On The Tube
Kalsoom Lakhani, founder of Invest2Innovate and Partner at i2i Ventures, sits down with Shoaib Zahid Malik in a fireside chat at Daftarkhwan. They discuss her journey and Venture Capital in Pakistan.
