US-based NRD Capital set to open office in Pakistan eying investments in startups Despite all of the recent attention, Pakistan has not had venture capital firms setting up offices in the country By Taimoor Hassan
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veryone is waking up to Pakistan. The year 2021 has been nothing but momentous for the country’s startup ecosystem in terms of the money being poured in from outside of Pakistan. Everyone now feels that Pakistan’s startups hold the potential for technology companies to come in and disrupt a system that has been running in a set way for decades. Seths have been upset about it, only to join the league a little later realising startups are the direction in which things are going to go for now. Consider banking seths who are now waking up to fintech companies, changing their slogans from ‘Jahan Khwaab, Wahan HBL’ to ‘a
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technology company with a banking license’ in the case of Pakistan’s largest bank. The shift has been rather quick, however, change happens quickly when there is big money involved.For the first nine months of 2021, Pakistan’s startups have successfully clocked close to $300 million in funding from leading names in the Venture Capital world, and that has definitely turned the tides. Names like Andreseen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, two of the world’s biggest startup investors based in the US, have also been involved. Pakistan’s startups are really turning heads and the country has caught the eye of some big names. However, while Pakistan has been getting serious attention, it has still not been enough for any of the big names in venture capital to actually open up offices in Pakistan -
a bigger commitment not just to a single startup but to the country on a whole. Pakistan’s startups have to reach out to these guys in the US or some other place in the world to convince them of the opportunities in Pakistan. It has only been expat Pakistanis who have flown back to Pakistan and set up funds in their home country. Now, another one of the investors that is US-based and again helmed by an expat Pakistani, plans to invest in Pakistan’s startups and to do so, is going to have boots on the ground. That means it is not going to invest from its headquarters in the US; rather it is setting up an office in Pakistan to evaluate the opportunities on the ground. The investor is US-based NRD Capital which is ready to test waters in Pakistan with an allocation for startups, from what NRD Capital says is a $300
