Venture capitalists search for investment opportunities in Pakistan

Alarge consumer base, along with a nascent digital entrepreneurship landscape and not many international players, makes Pakistan a great place for investments, said Riyad Abou Jaoudeh of Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) yesterday.

He was addressing the ‘Investor Panel Where is the money?’ at the 021Disrupt event. The two-day event, organised by Nest I/O a technology incubator, featured Pakistan’s diverse startup ecosystem along with local and foreign venture capitalists, innovators and entrepreneurs.

During the discussion, panellists talked about how the local ecosystem is faring in terms of innovation. They were all of the view that Pakistan is currently in the stage where tech-enabled startups are imitating ideas from successful American or European business models that have investors’ interest. Deep tech, on the other hand, requires much more funding and patience for which the country is not yet ready, they said.

The panellists also cautioned investors against becoming too involved.

‘We are the venture capitalists. We don’t tell entrepreneurs what to do. We advise but we don’t tell,’ underlined Jaoudeh. However, Khaled Talhouni of Wamda Capital differed: ‘ We have specialist teams in operations, marketing and all which our portfolio companies can seek consultation from.

Responding to a question regarding the best way to connect with a venture capital, Bernhard Klemen of Sarmayacar stressed on avoiding cold calling and rather focusing on recommendations.

To would-be entrepreneurs, Shahida Saleeem of PEP are not money bags! She, however, stressed that it wasn’t the investors’ job to figure out where the startup is going. ‘The job of an investor is to offer support.’

On the sidelines of the conference, Jaoudeh, managing director of MEVP a fund investing in Arab states shared the company`s intentions to enter the emerging Pakistani market. ‘We haven’t invested anything here as yet but now we are exploring opportunities here, particularly in companies wanting to raise B round,’ he said, referring to the second round of funding that startups require after the initial seed money.

The company has a portfolio of around 40 startups, ranging from fintech to bookings.

Sarmayacar the Netherlands based early stage venture capital that just raised $30mn to invest in Pakistan also shared its plans.

Klemen and CEO Rabeel Warriach said that they were looking to invest between the range of $100,000 to $2mn in local tech or tech-enabled startups. Sarmayacar already has stakes in three Pakistani companies Patari, ProCheck and Simpaisa – and would now be expanding that portfolio.

The event also officially marked the entry of a South East Asian venture capital Gobi VC in Pakistan, with an investment of $1.5mn in local booking app, Sastaticket.pk. Raof Zainuddin of Gobi said that their VC will be actively looking for more opportunities here in early stage startups.