2021 is likely to be your year, as a Pakistani entrepreneur, or someone aspiring to be one. According to a recent report released by MAGNITT, the largest start-up group in the MENA region, Pakistan is likely to experience the greatest increase in funding for start-ups in 2021.
The report, entitled 2021 Emerging Venture Markets Report, notes the meteoric rise experience by the Pakistani startup community in 2020. In fact, with a forty five increase in deal flow, a 63% increase in risk capital funding, and a 97% surge overall in startup funding, the country saw record levels of investment in 2020 as compared to 2019. Both local and foreign players were beginning to stay up and notice of Pakistan’s explosive startup environment.
The report proceeded to predict that in 2021, Pakistan was likely to witness the most important rate of growth of total funding, supported its very strong current growth trajectory.
“2020 proved that follow-on capital would flow to Pakistan quickly for startups that execute well. Airlift raised an outsized round, $12M, within 7 months folks leading their initial rounds,” the report said. “Bykea raised a $13M series B round, led by Prosus. Many top VCs including First Round Capital, Prosus, Global Founders Capital, Village Global, Quiet Capital, GFC, YCombinator, Pioneer Fund have invested in Pakistan in 2020.”
In terms of sectors that received the foremost funding, the transport industry unsurprisingly came out on top (think about the progress made by Airlift and Bykea) because it overtook e-commerce and accounted for 28% of the entire capital invested in Pakistan.
In terms of the number of deals signed, however, e-commerce reached the top spot on the leaderboard as it accounted for 33 percent of the total number of deals signed between 2019 and 2020, led by an 11 percent share of the fintech market.
