NayaPay, a Pakistan-based fintech company backed by the Lakson Group, a conglomerate in Pakistan, has secured $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in South Asia.
The seed round was led by angel investors like Zayn Capital, MSA Novo, and Graph Ventures. NayaPay aims to introduce a payment platform to enable P2P interaction in a secure and cost-effective manner. NayaPay attempts to bridge the gap between the consumer and the financial services available to them.
Danish Lakhani, CEO of the company at an event, said that “We at NayaPay hold the firm conviction that Pakistan needs a robust, local payment service that provides similar user conveniences to and has as profound an impact on the transaction economy as those which PayPal, Venmo, AliPay and WeChat Pay have on their native markets.”
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In 2018, NayaPay joined hands with Meezan Bank to accelerate their growth, simultaneously boosting Pakistan’s digital transactions, which the local market had still not accepted as a norm, favoring cash or cheques over it.
In 2020 NayaPay partnered up with Visa to fast track cross-border money transfers. The move assisted in international fund transfers, which gained popularity due to the surge in freelancing and related tech exports.
The partnership with Visa also helped NayaPay to leverage its security, capabilities, and reach. In 2021, the Pakistan-based fintech company, after a year-long inspection, earned its EMI (Electronic Money Institution) license from the State Bank of Pakistan, securing its ground as a legitimate fintech company in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s biggest fintech round, NayaPay has raised $13 million as it targets five millions customers https://t.co/9nNjhJd9Hj
— Faseeh Mangi (@FaseehMangi) February 24, 2022
Finally, in 2022, the company secured $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in the country. The fintech has also launched its chat-led super app targeted primarily at students and freelancers and is also building a Software as a Service that would offer universal payment acceptance and financial management services.
Pakistan presents a huge market potential for such fintech startups due to its low account penetration rate. Currently, only 82 million adults out of the total of 132 million adults have unique bank accounts, and only 33 percent of the women.
This accounts for a huge market gap and a huge potential for a customer base. Pakistan has also recently witnessed a shift towards the digital mode of payment and a shift from the traditional mode of payment. Section 21 of the Tax Law Ordinance now mandates that payments exceeding 250,000 be made digitally.
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This would help reduce the risk of money laundering and reduce grey transactions. Pakistan presents a significant market opportunity for NayaPay as digital transactions recently in FY 2020-21 spiked 31.1 percent, amounting to $500 billion or Rs. 88 trillion, far exceeding the country’s GDP.
Pakistani startups witnessed impressive growth in 2021 as they bagged a whopping $375 million from angel investors and venture capitalists. This is nearly five times more than what startups received in 2020 and twice of what they received in the past six years combined.
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Airlift topped the board by securing $85 million, followed by Bazaar, which bagged $30 million. Such ventures are vital as they promote ease of doing business, attract investments, advance equality of opportunity, and inspire a culture of ingenuity in the country.