Fatima Gobi Ventures, which brings together Pakistan conglomerate Fatima Group and Gobi Ventures, has announced its initial round of investment in five startups for its maiden Techxila Fund I, which was announced late 2019. The startups in the initial round all feature experienced founders in their management teams. The companies operate in e-commerce, travel, fintech, SaaS and logistics–and these are aimed at addressing the needs of Pakistani customers and businesses particularly in the post-pandemic environment.

Following are the companies in Techxila Fund I, as per Fatima Gobi Ventures’ announcement.

Tajir

The first Y-Combinator startup based in Pakistan, Tajir is a B2B marketplace. Through their platform, stores can order inventory, receive on-demand delivery services as well as enjoy transparent and competitive prices. The company essentially takes a process that usually consumes a dozen hours weekly and reduces it to a few minutes. On the supplier side, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors can directly sell their products to kirana stores via Tajir while enjoying greater sales at higher margins with zero additional investment. Founded by brothers Babar and Ismail Khan in 2019, the company’s vision is to provide every kirana store in Pakistan with the essential services it needs to grow.

Safepay

A FinTech platform and online payment gateway, Safepay is the first Pakistani FinTech to be selected by YC for their Summer 2020 batch. With a business model similar to Stripe in the US, the company has developer-focused APIs and plugins available for Magento, OpenCart, Shopify, and WooCommerce platforms. Founded by wapistanis Ziyad Parekh and Raza Navi, Safepay’s main focus is on enabling online payments for B2C and e-commerce platforms.

The platform has integrated Visa, MasterCard, and local payment methods, such as mobile wallets and bank accounts to facilitate e-commerce transactions. Their seed funding has drawn some leading backers from the West, including Y Combinator.

InventHub

A first-of-its-kind SaaS startup in deep tech, InventHub was founded by Usama Abid. A truly homegrown entrepreneur, Usama’s vision for InventHub’s is to enable inventors to bring their products to life and help current hardware companies optimize their collaboration processes.

The company has developed efficient processes that help eliminate redundancies which translates into lower costs for hardware development and enables faster, more affordable innovations to happen. Despite its founder’s humble beginnings, InventHub has been backed by foreign capital, namely from Tim Draper, an American venture capitalist.

Airlift

Airlift, which set out to build an efficient logistics platform in Pakistan, raised the country’s largest Series A round of US$22M led by early Uber-backer, First Round Capital. The investment was also the firm’s first venture into the Pakistan startup ecosystem. Initially, the Airlift team began by trying to solve the daily commute problem with the introduction of an efficient mass transit system. However, COVID-19 gave Airlift an opportunity to launch quick e-commerce as lockdowns in the country accelerated the adoption of online purchasing of daily essentials. They now offer customers the delivery of all household goods within 45 minutes. By connecting manufacturers directly with consumers, Airlift provides an efficient and low-cost distribution network for consumers.

Sastaticket

Commencing operations in 2016, Sastaticket is an emerging online travel agency (OTA) that aims to give Pakistani travellers access to all travel products in the country. They are essentially democratizing access to travel suppliers and standardizing transactions via a user-friendly platform. Known as one of Pakistan’s leading OTA, the COVID-19 pandemic had a definite impact on Sastaticket. However, as travel restrictions within the country were lifted, the company recorded a V-shaped recovery; as of October, the number of bookings recorded in the month was 150% over pre-COVID levels. Sastaticket is on track to raise a growth round next year as they seek to expand into more markets locally and aim to dominate 50% of the online travel market share.

Techxila Fund I to address market pain points

Techxila Fund I, is set to invest in another 10 to 15 companies over the next few years, and with focus on Seed and Series A investments in technology-enabled businesses that address current pain points in Pakistan, which is a market of at least 200 million population including 75 million internet users.

Target sectors include travel, logistics, FinTech, healthcare, education, e-commerce, consumer tech, industrial Internet. The venture capital team also features TaqwaTech, an investment vertical that targets innovative startups offering products and
services that cater to the global Muslim population.

According to Fatima Gobi Ventures, at least 70 percent of the targeted fund size has been raised thus far and the fund is on track to complete the final close in early 2021. Limited Partners include leading entrepreneurs representing industries that include agriculture, banking, energy, textiles, and other important sectors of the economy, as well as former Amazon
MENA Regional Finance Director and Souq.com Group CFO Asif Keshodia.