NayaPay, a Pakistan-based fintech platform, has raised $13 million in one of South Asia’s largest seed rounds. The round was led by Zayn Capital, global fund manager MSA Novo, and Silicon Valley early-stage VC Graph Ventures, and brought together a diverse mix of leading global institutional and angel investors.
Saison Capital of Singapore, Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital, and Warren Hogarth, CEO of Empower Finance, also participated in the round, as did the Lakson Group, a Pakistani conglomerate with interests in media, telecom, industrials, and financial services, as well as a controlling stake in Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan and McDonald’s Pakistan.
NayaPay is Pakistan’s first fintech, having recently received the first E-Money Institution license from the country’s central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
It is on a mission to simplify and make financial services available to millions of Pakistani users. With its two-sided platform for the underbanked, NayaPay aims to be at the forefront of Pakistan’s digitization.
In Pakistan, where over 50 million adults are unbanked and only 33 percent of women have a bank account, NayaPay sees a significant market opportunity. With 70% of the population under the age of 35, there is a sizable mobile-first generation.
Every year, nearly $4 trillion in payments are made, but only 1% of these are made digitally. On the merchant side, the vast majority of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Pakistan are unregistered, have traditionally dealt primarily in cash, and have very limited access to business banking.
The fintech has launched a chat-based super app aimed primarily at students and freelancers, and it is developing a SaaS-based platform called NayaPay Arc that will offer universal payment acceptance and financial management tools to small and medium-sized businesses.
NayaPay’s platform strategy will capitalize on network effects between consumers and merchants, as seen in native market platforms such as Square Cash/Square, WeChat Pay, AliPay, and Venmo.
NayaPay CEO and Founder, Danish A. Lakhani, commented, “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.”
Danish A. Lakhani added, “Micro, small and medium businesses make up 90% of the merchant base in Pakistan, and yet they are underserved when it comes to access to basic financial services.
NayaPay Arc will provide universal payments acceptance and a range of business financial management tools to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners.”
“The tools are intended to give business owners visibility of their cash flows, pay suppliers and grow sales. Our goal is to enable them to focus on growth while we take care of the rest.
By helping small businesses harness the power of technology, we believe we can transform the Pakistani economy,” he added.
To read our blog on “NayaPay Greenlighted By SBP For Pilot Operations,” click here.
