• Lahore-based Taro Technologies secures US $3.5M in pre-seed funding
• National retailers can soon quickly and easily offer Taro’s installment payment options to Pakistan’s consumers, both in-store and online
• Taro is the only Sharia-friendly BNPL Company in Pakistan, designed to support consumer lifestyle needs with an aim to increase purchasing power and liquidity. 
• Partnership with Cashew Payments will enhance Taro’s position as Pakistan’s leading provider of installment payments for e-commerce purchases
• Highlights the capabilities of Pakistan’s fintech companies and Lahore as a growing tech hub

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Taro Technologies, an emerging fintech startup in Pakistan, has secured US$3.5 Million in pre-seed funding through a combination of strategic partnerships and angel investors to launch a Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) venture in Pakistan. As part of their pre-seed round, Taro has partnered with Dubai-based Cashew Payments – a BNPL leader in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – to accelerate its 2022 Q1 launch and growth.

Mustafa Khan, CEO of Taro and former Silicon Valley Apple engineer, has stressed that this partnership will enable Taro to be an established player straight out of the gate, stating: “Our collaboration with Cashew provides critical insights into risk, merchant acquisition, operations, and customer retention. Those insights paired with support from their experienced and accomplished leadership team position us for a strong launch and to quickly dominate the market.”

The partnership with Cashew Payments puts the local Lahore fintech company on the global tech map for online instant financing solutions.

Ammar Afif, CEO of cashew, said: “We are delighted to partner with Taro, in providing ‘Buy now, Pay later’ solutions for merchants and consumers in Pakistan,” Afif continued. “As we’ve grown our business in the GCC, we recognized the need for retailers in Pakistan to have a seamless way of offering flexible payment options to consumers in multiple industries. Through our partnership with Taro, all retailers in Pakistan can soon rapidly activate Taro’s installment payments for consumers across all channels online and offline.”

While the GCC has close ties with Pakistan, learnings from the GCC will still need to be tailored for Pakistan before they can be successfully applied locally. As such, Taro CEO Mustafa Khan, now based in Lahore, has been busy expanding his local network.

“To prime our Q1 launch, we’ve also been busy on the ground in Lahore hiring a talented core team with significant fintech expertise. Along with our core team, we’ve arranged partnerships with local financial and technical firms that will ensure a strong and successful launch.” – Mustafa Khan

The BNPL venture intends to help provide new forms of credit to all Pakistanis, especially the underbanked, with Mustafa’s enthusiasm captured in the quote below:

“I am thrilled to be launching BNPL in Pakistan through Taro. I’ve noticed Pakistanis are eager for access to new technology that puts them in control. By offering lending services to a wider range of people, we can help provide the control and flexibility they desire”

Pakistan’s e-commerce sector has seen a lot of growth in the past fiscal year of 2021, with a spend of around US$7.2 Billion. Taro seeks to provide easy access to credit for all Pakistanis, allowing increased access to e-commerce outlets. The company is looking to expand their operations across the country and eventually beyond.

Taro Technologies is a rising BNPL star and plans to provide flexible payment options and access to new forms of credit to Pakistani customers, while also enabling merchants (who are looking for more payment options) to grow sales and increase their market reach.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) TPL Trakker, Pakistan’s leading digital mapping, tracking and IoT services provider has partnered with Pakistan’s fastest growing Agri-tech platform Jiye Technologies to provide location-based services. The collaboration between two revolutionary solution providers in their respective categories is designed to enhance Jiye Tech’s ability to support farmers and other businesses associated with Pakistan’s agriculture sector in bolstering a digital transformation of the existing ecosystem. 

Agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to Pakistan’s economy employing 42.3% of the work force in the country and offers 18.9% share in the GDP. Jiye Technologies is a rapidly growing Agri-tech platform that connects farmers and businesses through a lean supply chain model. This collaboration by TPL Trakker is the first step in providing a robust infrastructure for growth to Jiye’s platform for creating a modern as well as sustainable landscape for progress in the agri-tech sector. This segment has for long operated through traditional methods but with transformation of global ecosystems, digitization has become imperative for sowing the seeds for brighter prospects in the industry and TPL Trakker is honored to provide appropriate foundations for it. 

Commenting on the partnership, Sarwar Ali Khan, CEO, TPL Trakker stated; “TPL Trakker is always at the forefront for partnering with established as well as emerging organizations that share the same values as our organization. As a forward thinking organization we firmly believe in progressive facilitation of evolving digital ecosystems. Our collaboration with Jiye Technologies is a personification of our objectives to support startups especially in the Agri-tech sector where they can make a lasting impact for all stakeholders.”

Sharing his thoughts on the partnership, Ali Amin, Co-Founder, Jiye Technologies commented, “At Jiye Technologies, we’re always looking for the most optimal solutions while keeping our customers’ best interests at heart.  We’re very happy to have partnered with TPL Trakker, an organization that also believes in the possibilities that digital transformation can create for the agriculture sector in Pakistan; and with their help, we move another step forward in building a lean supply chain system that is the most efficient with accurate and on time deliveries.”

TPL Trakker is the provider of mapping and telematics solutions to some of Pakistan’s leading organizations working in food delivery, power generation, ride hailing among numerous others.  

Lahore (Nut Desk)

realme, the world’s fastest-growing smartphone brand, today officially announced a 40 million sales volumes milestone of its popular realme Number smartphone lines.

According to Strategy Analytics, realme’s number series was ranked No. 04 as of Q3 2021 by consolidated shipments among the ‘New Age Smartphone Families’, which has been pivotal to its scale up to be the fastest brand ever to ship 100 million units in the entire smartphone history. “New Age Smartphone Families” are defined as smartphone product lines launched since 2018, including Reno from OPPO, iQoo from vivo and Galaxy M from Samsung.

As one of the fastest Android smartphone product lines to reach 40 million shipments, the realme Number series achieve this milestone in only 14 quarters after realme 1 was launched in 2018. Before that, only Samsung A Series, Xiaomi Redmi Series, Oppo A Series, and Vivo iQoo Series, reached this milestone.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Pakistan’s leading cellular services provider and the digital frontrunner, Zong 4G has yet again empowered its customers to meet their specific digital connectivity needs in today’s fast-paced world by introducing the industry’s most innovative Make Your Own Package. Now Zong customers have the freedom and convenience to make their own customized Package as per their needs at the best possible rates either by dialing *3031# or by logging in to My Zong App. Customers have option to select their desired validity (3, 7 & 30 days) along with resources which include Social Data GBs for Facebook, WhatsApp & YouTube, all-purpose Data GBs, Zong Minutes, Other Network Mins and SMS. Upon selection of the desired incentives customer will be required to make payment through their balance only for the incentives they have selected. “The MYOP is yet another testament to Zong’s customer-first approach where our focus is to facilitate our users in the most innovative and flexible ways. Seamless digital connectivity is the first step towards digital inclusion and we hope that MYOP will help plug the existing digital penetration gaps in Pakistan.” Shared Zong 4G’s spokesperson As a customer-centric company, Zong aims to uplift its customers’ experience to newer heights. Through its most advanced digital solutions, Pakistan’s leading telecommunication network is innovating to provide sought-after solutions, services, and offers to its customers and promises to continue doing so in the future.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Pakistan’s logistics giant TCS Private Limited recently transported another pharmaceutical shipment by road to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, following TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers) protocols, administered by the United Nations International Road Transport Union (IRU). TCS Private Limited is the first Pakistani Company to have qualified for international operations with Pakistani trucks and drivers. Amongst the requirements for this qualification are an Electronic Customs User Interface and an international guarantee in favor of the ‘World Customs Organization’. More Pakistani Companies are now lining up for this qualification as a direct result.

TCS Private Limited’s vehicle entered Uzbekistan on January 12, 2022, after navigating through days of heavy snowfall across Afghanistan’s mountains. In a historic first, the TCS Private Limited crew, in freezing cold but enthused with a sense of purpose, spent a night inside their truck on the famous Friendship Bridge, which constitutes the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan because the gates of both countries closed for the night just as the TCS Private Limited TIR truck was crossing the bridge.

Incidents such as these and its earlier piloting of TIR protocols pertaining to Land, Customs and Border procedures have given TCS Private Limited invaluable experience for operating future trade routes between Pakistan and the Central Asian Republics. This landmark mission was achieved by TCS Private Limited in close coordination with the Ministry of Commerce, and the Pakistan National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (PNC-ICC), and the Uzbek International Forwarders Association (UIFA).

In a statement on the occasion, TCS Private Limited’s Co-Founder and Chairman Khalid Nawaz Awan, said, “We are proud to be trail-blazing new routes and trade corridors that will rejuvenate the economies of this region. As Pakistan’s logistics backbone, TCS Private Limited will extend its physical footprint by opening its Sales and Customer Support Offices in countries across the region”.

Earlier in 2021, the TCS Private Limited pilot was supported by Pakistan Regional Economic Integration Activity (PREIA) and USAID (United States Agency for International Development). The entire project was widely lauded by the Uzbek and Pakistani governments in July 2021, during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Tashkent.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has announced the key findings of its latest Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Survey. Overall, 37% of the respondents indicated that it takes 1 to 3 years to resolve a standard IPR dispute and 22% stated that it takes more than 5 years. Respondents also expressed concern regarding the penalty on IPR violation being insignificant and not sufficient to act as a deterrent. Moreover, the IP Tribunals were not fully functional in all three major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

The OICCI IPR Survey 2021 conducted in late 2021 reflects the assessment of the foreign investors, on the state of intellectual property protection in Pakistan. Effective protection of IPR comprising of Copyrights, Patents and Trademark is critical for attracting and retaining Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country.

The foreign investors participating in the survey showed higher satisfaction (from 17% in 2020 to 37% in 2021) on  IPOP, the IPR regulator in Pakistan, and have urged IPOP for taking a more leading role in ensuring the effective IPR regime in the country. OICCI members have asked IPOP for support in strengthening IPR regime by automating and fast tracking the process of registering IP, massively promoting awareness on the importance of IPR and its impact for business/investment, and in improving the skills of LEAs to proactively stop the abuse of IPR.

Currently, all the OICCI members rely on their own resources for monitoring threat of IPR violations. However, there is a great desire for all the IP owners to work in partnership with the government authorities for a better IPR regime in Pakistan. Serious lack of awareness and appreciation about IPR, lengthy timelines for granting IP rights, long drawn judicial proceedings, inadequately trained staff at LEAs and low penalties prescribed under IPR laws for IPR violations, were some of the key concerns highlighted in the survey. Irfan Siddiqui, President OICCI, while commenting on the survey results shared that “Foreign investors’ concerns on the effectiveness of IPR regime are supported by the loss of revenue which as a percentage of organization’s three-year turnover ranges from 1% to 30%. This in turn is causing significant loss to national exchequer as well”. 

Concluding the OICCI IPR Survey 2021 results, CEO / Secretary General OICCI, M Abdul Aleem expressed his concerns on the low level of attention by key stakeholders being given to IPR. He added that “More than two-third (2/3rd) of the respondents feel that the issue does not fall amongst the top priorities of the Law Enforcement authorities (LEA), government, media and even the public”. He emphasized that IPR protection is a collective responsibility and called all the key stakeholders especially the media and government authorities for support in this regard.