Pakistani fintech company NayaPay raises $13m in seed funding round

Pakistani fintech company NayaPay has secured $13 million in a seed funding round for its chat-led super app that mainly targets students and freelancers and to develop a SaaS based platform dubbed NayaPay Arc for offering small to medium businesses (SMBs) with universal payment acceptance and financial management tools.

The funding round was led by Pakistan-focused investment firm Zayn Capital, UK-based MSA Novo, and Silicon Valley-based VC Graph Ventures.

Faisal Aftab — Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Zayn Capital Frontier said: “We are very bullish on fintech in Pakistan. While just beginning to emerge, Pakistani fintechs have the advantage of learning from peers and placing better informed strategic bets.

“We were impressed by the completeness of the vision of the founding team at NayaPay, and their differentiated platform-based strategy– first focused on servicing the needs of underbanked consumers and SMBs with specific use cases and building out from there.”

Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital, Singapore-based Saison Capital, and Empower Finance CEO Warren Hogarth also took part in NayaPay seed funding round.

The Pakistan fintech company also secured a major investment from the sponsors of the Lakson Group, which is a Pakistan-based conglomerate.

Recently, NayaPay had secured the first E-Money Institution license from the State Bank of Pakistan.

Danish A. Lakhani — NayaPay CEO and Founder said: “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.

“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.”