Total investment in Pakistani startup

The first half of 2021 has proven to be stellar for Pakistani startups. According to data compiled by Data Darbaar, total investment into the country's ecosystem crossed $120 million across 35 unique deals.

This figure is almost twice as much as the $66 million registered during the whole of 2020, when 48 deals were recorded. Activity was mainly led by the e-commerce sector which cumulatively bagged more than $42m across 11 deals in the first six months of the current year, surpassing the $11.2m recorded during all of 2020.

Aside from the Series B of Jabberwock Ventures, the parent company of Cheetay and Swyft which was never officially disclosed but is reported to be around $20m, Tajir recorded the biggest deal worth $17m at Series A.

The e-commerce sector's ascent to the funding leaderboard from second position came on the back of a handful of business to business (B2B) startups working towards digitising the retail supply chain, or what the i2i Insights calls DukanTech.

It was these players that raked in the overwhelming majority of the money at $36.6m, making up 87 per cent of the sector’s total. All five of them, Bazaar, Retailo, Tajir, Salesflo and Dastgyr had raised a combined $6.2m in 2020, thus representing a surge of almost six times in less than a year.