Category: IT news

Other investors include Accion Venture Lab and Planet N

Islamabad (Muhammad Yasir)  – Tez Financial Services, the first fully digital Non-Bank Microfinance Company (NBMFC) focused on serving the unbanked and underbanked in Pakistan, today announced that it has raised USD$1.1 million in a seed round led by Omidyar Network, the impact investment firm established by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. Other investors on this round include Accion Venture Lab, the seed-stage investment initiative of global nonprofit Accion; and Planet N. Funds will be deployed to build the company’s credit portfolio, enhance its mobile technology platform, and to meet the regulatory NBMFC requirements. 

“Our aim is to become the primary financial service provider for the unbanked and underbanked. Tez delivers a seamless experience for its customers, providing loans in under 15 minutes as opposed to the usual month timeline from local commercial banks. Soon, we will be able to process a life and health insurance claim in similar time,” explains Nadeem Hussain, co-founder and CEO of Tez. 

 

You can learn more about the challenge, opportunity, and impact in this video. 

In Pakistan, more than 50 percent of the population is unbanked, according to the World Bank. Many resort to using a variety of informal financial tools to manage their finances, but those can be unreliable, expensive, and inefficient. With more than one-third of the population living below the poverty line, minute fluctuations in cash flow could impair their ability to meet their day-to-day financial needs, such as paying bills or buying groceries. Leveraging the increased penetration of smartphones in the country, Tez aims to integrate the masses into the financial mainstream. 

“New technologies, higher smartphone penetration, and falling data costs are fueling a great momentum for financial inclusion in frontier markets such as Pakistan. Tez is leveraging this to push the boundaries of banking in the country with an all-digital offering,” said Kabir Kumar, head of Policy and Ecosystem Building at Omidyar Network. “Tez’s diverse team is also well-positioned to bring about the products and services that really speak to the next generation of consumers in that country.” 

Tez aims to reduce the financial vulnerability of over 50 million underserved Pakistanis through a single platform—a smartphone app, driven by artificial intelligence, providing frictionless access to an all-encompassing financial services offering including nano-credit, digital ROSCAs, health and term life insurance, and tailored investments. 

“Tez marks our first investment in Pakistan, a country with a significant need for innovative products that can bring its population into the formal financial system,” said Michael Schlein, President and CEO of Accion. “By supporting Tez’s all-digital model, we can help make an important difference for millions of underserved Pakistani families and businesses.”

Tez has integrated with EasyPaisa, UBL Omni, and SimSim as its branchless banking partners, resulting in the largest combined agent network for its customers. It has also partnered with two of the largest insurance companies in Pakistan—EFU Life and Jubilee General—to provide life and health coverage. VentureDive is the technology partner, fostering technological innovation at a global scale, with offices in Pakistan, UAE, and Germany. 

Tez is available for download on Google Play and for actively disbursing credit to the masses. Soon, it will be launching additional products that will help further advance financial inclusion in Pakistan.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Following the full-day digital policy conference called Accelerate to a Digital State, Jazz, Pakistan’s largest digital telecommunication company, released a sector report on a digital policy framework for the Government of Pakistan. This sector report laid out in-depth transformational recommendations on agriculture, health and education.

Over the past decade, new technologies have revolutionized public sectors all over the world. Progressive nations are investing heavily on critical sectors to ensure economic prosperity for future generations. Pakistan’s Vision 2025, lays down a foundation to put the country on a fast track of development with the ultimate goal of transforming it to become one of top ten economies in the world by 2047. This vision is being supported by a host of private enterprises. Jazz takes a key government partner role in the realization of this goal.

The Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui spoke of the need for synergy in seeking a transformation. The minister said, “The telecommunications industry must now focus on digital services through sectoral value chains and supporting the government to create a conducive regulatory environment.”

With over 200 professionals in attendance, the speakers from leading companies, international development agencies and technologists spoke of the barriers to disruptive technologies taking root in Pakistan and the solutions needed urgently.

Jazz CEO, Aamir Ibrahim said, “In the last five years the ICT industry brought USD 3.3 billion in revenues to Pakistan and we know that if the policies we recommend here are put in place, we can play a part in meeting the national target of USD 10 billion revenues in ICT by 2020.”

The experts at the conference attended by stakeholders from telecom, academia and government agreed that no digital agenda can be complete without a deep analysis about these three high-grossing sectors for the national GDP.

• Six Facebook community leaders to be featured in new season of Idea Coreron Ka
• A grant of up to USD$20,000 will be awarded to each community leader

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Facebook today announced its partnership with Idea Coreron Ka, a reality show that gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their ideas to potential investors. The partnership will see six of Pakistan’s most promising Facebook community group leaders featured in the latest season of Idea Coreron Ka.

Over the course of six episodes, each community leader will have the opportunity to share their plans and vision for their communities with a national audience. Each community leader will receive a grant of up to USD$20,000 to bring their vision to life.

The six community leaders that will be featured on Idea Coreron Ka are: Binish Umair (Karachi Schools Guide), Saba Mohsin Shaikh (Karachi Chefs at Home (KCH), Asma Omer (Marham), Rabia Aziz-Rizvi (Special Needs Pakistan), Kanwal Ahmed (Soul Sisters Pakistan),and Nadia Patel Gangjee (Sheops).

“We’ve been inspired by the many positive stories of what happens when people come together to support each other – from women entrepreneurs and school teachers to families with special needs. That’s why we’re committed to helping Pakistanis build community and are delighted to be announcing this partnership withIdea Coreron Ka,” said Clair Deevy, APAC Director of Community Affairs, APAC.

“More than 1 billion people use Facebook Groups every month. These groups help people build safe, supportive communities and strengthen existing ones. Community leaders play a vital role because their passion and dedication help to foster, form and strengthen the community. We want to ensure we give our community leaders in Pakistan the support they need to create positive, meaningful impact in their communities”.

Two of the community leaders featured on Idea Coreron Ka, Nadia Patel Gangjee (Sheops) and Kanwal Ahmed (Soul Sisters Pakistan), have also been awarded fellowships in the first global Facebook Community Leadership Program. 116 people from around the world have been selected into the program as community leaders in residence, fellows or youth participants. As part of the program, Gangjee and Ahmed will receive training, mentorship and guidance from Facebook. Over the course of the year, they will spend time at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, working with the team to help develop their community initiatives.

Facebook also recently launched Community Leader Circles in Pakistan – a global programme that gives community leaders the opportunity to come together to share best practices, participate in trainings and workshops, support one another, and meet in person on an ongoing basis.

Idea Coreron Ka airs on Neo TV every Sunday at 7:00pm.

Idea Coreron Ka Finalists (Community Leaders)

Binish Umair is the founder of Karachi Schools Guide – a community that provides a unified platform to bridge the gap between parents, teachers, educators and students in order to bring them on a single page for an exchange of healthy information related to the field of education and activities which will aid to the constructive development of kids. The community has 92K+ members.

Saba Mohsin Shaikh is the founder of Karachi Chefs at Home (KCH), a female-only Facebook group where members share a love for food and cooking. Women share their tried and tested recipes, and through the group these have been compiled into 3 books known as Tasty Treasures Volume 1,2 and 3. The community has 135K+ members.

Asma Omer is the co-founder of Marham, a community created with an aim to provide quick medical help to the patients in terms of right doctor identification, sharing quick access points of the doctors and other such problems. The community has 100K+ members.

Rabia Aziz-Rizvi is the founder of Special Needs Pakistan – a platform and a resource network for parents, siblings, families and friends of all those who need extra love, attention or care. The group has 6K+ members.

Kanwal Ahmed is the founder of Soul Sisters Pakistan – a community formed with the intention to provide an online support system for every Pakistani woman, regardless of where she lives. Although the primary focus remains to be able to discuss women’s issues and networking with like-minded individuals, it has also evolved into an information and entertainment avenue with its own blog that periodically features stories of group members. The community has 54K+ members.

Nadia Patel Gangjee is the founder of Sheops, Pakistan Pakistan’s first women’s marketplace, facilitating women entrepreneurs and women-oriented businesses to start and scale their business leveraging technology. Sheops is also a bustling Facebook Group of 100,000+ connecting women buyers and sellers.

• Partners with Universal Service Fund in Islamabad, Punjab IT Board in Lahore
• Delivers digital skills training focused on small businesses and online safety
• USF partnership will cover 80 cities and aims to reach more than 8,000 women across the country
• Partnership with PITB’s Herself initiative will reach 150 trainers and 12000 women trainees across Punjab

Islamabad (Muhammad Yasir) Facebook today launched its #SheMeansBusiness program with the Universal Service Fund (USF) in Islamabad and the Punjab IT Board (PITB) in Lahore. The program helps equip women entrepreneurs with the knowledge, connections, skills and technology required to build and grow their businesses online.

Aligned with Digital Pakistan’s mission, Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness partnership with USF and PITB aims to reach 20,000 women across Pakistan over the next three years, delivering digital skills training with a focus on small business development and online safety. The PITB partnership includes a three month digital literacy program offered as part of PITB’s ‘Herself’ initiative.

Since its beginnings on International Women’s Day in 2016, #SheMeansBusiness has established an active presence in 21 countries, including Pakistan, and has trained more than 42,000 women entrepreneurs.

“When women do better, we all benefit. More women are employed, more role models are created, and there is stronger diversity,” says Clair Deevy, Director of Community Affairs, APAC. “Women are doing amazing things on Facebook around the world with the support and encouragement of the #SheMeansBusiness community. Our partnerships in Pakistan with USF and PITB will hopefully help inspire and empower more Pakistani women to start and grow a business.”

Globally, 43% of the active small businesses Pages on Facebook are owned by women, with this percentage growing by more than 21% in 2017, and by more than 94% year-on-year since 2015. This growth is a catalyst to establishing new partnerships in countries such as Pakistan where there is a fresh focus on digital inclusion and empowering women.

The difference the program can make is supported by Facebook’s Future of Business survey. Carried out with the World Bank and OECD, the survey found that businesses run by women are more likely than those run by men to leverage online tools to drive success and that higher rates of entrepreneurialism are found among women in less developed markets. Women in these economies are driven to pursue entrepreneurial paths to provide for their families, generally through basic types of consumer-focused products and services businesses. By doing so, they can become a real engine for their local economies.

The same research says that realising the potential of women entrepreneurs generates benefits ranging from job creation and economic growth, to a more diverse small business community. That’s because entrepreneurs create jobs for themselves and enrich the lives of people including employees, investors, suppliers and the organizations they work with.

Speaking at the #SheMeansBusiness launch in Islamabad, CFO of USF, Haaris M Chaudhary said: “#SheMeansBusiness is a great initiative and an excellent opportunity for USF ICT for Girls Program, and using a ‘train the trainer’ approach enables the female student beneficiaries to learn the tools and techniques for running their own businesses.” He also said; “the training involves important topics like Digital Safety which creates awareness on issues like protecting identity theft and using the internet responsibly and safely. Making these girls financially independent in a safe environment is the core objective of USF program and this collaboration with Facebook will go a long way in enabling the socioeconomic development of women in Pakistan.”

The program runs for the rest of this year and will kick-off in Islamabad on 13 September and in Lahore on 14th September 2018.

Islamabad (Muhammad Yasir)  Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) has entered into an Enterprise Class Infrastructure Solutions Provider agreement with Dell EMC to enhance IT transformation process of businesses across Pakistan.

Under this partnership, PTCL will provide Dell EMC infrastructure solution and services to companies and businesses nationwide. These solutions will help organizations in their business growth through massive scalability and efficiency for a wide range of files & data storage workloads.

Understanding the unique infrastructure requirements for various business models, this partnership will cater to all the market segments; small or large, with solutions that can help modernize datacenters and increase IT efficiency.

Adil Rashid, Chief Business Services officer, PTCL, on the occasion, said, “This partnership will enable us to offer industry leading infrastructure solutions to our customers, which will help them to broaden their capabilities and grow even faster. Leveraging Dell EMC capabilities, our priority is to solve our customers’ digital challenges giving them confidence to deploy new capabilities, thereby, establishing PTCL as a trusted ICT solution provider in the country.”

Naveed Khan, Director Data Center Solutions, Dell EMC Asia Emerging Markets, on the occasion, said, “Today Dell EMC and PTCL embark on a new journey towards digital transformation. With Dell EMC’s leading technology and PTCL’s reach across Pakistan, both organization are collaborating for a common goal to help businesses prepare for the Digital Age.”

PTCL’s partnership with Dell EMC will provide a wide array of cloud-native and traditional workloads solutions in line with its Public Cloud strategy on Converged, Hyper-Converged, All-Flash and Hybrid storage to businesses. This also includes server lifecycle automation, expandable infrastructure for compute & networking and a mix of Dell EMC Software Defined Storage Solutions to different industries nationwide.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Systems Limited proudly announced it has won the 2018 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for Pakistan. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“We are extremely honored to receive this accolade from Microsoft,” said Asif Peer, CEO, Systems Limited. “Our unwavering dedication to excellence in delivery and customer service is the reason we have won this coveted award. Our technology implementation teams have worked closely with both Khaadi and our partners at Microsoft to produce a specialized solution that aligns perfectly with Khaadi’s business requirements. To have delivered such a powerful solution in such a short period of time is a landmark achievement, and I commend our technology professionals for their commitment and hard work,” he added.

Awards were presented in several categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 2,600 entrants from 115 countries worldwide. Systems Limited was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services, as well as representing excellent subsidiary engagement in Pakistan.

The Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Awards honor partners at the country level that have demonstrated business excellence in delivering Microsoft solutions to multiple customers over the past year. This award recognizes Systems Limited as succeeding in effective engagement with its local Microsoft office while showcasing innovation and business impact, driving customer satisfaction, and winning new customers.

“We are honored to recognize Systems Limited of Pakistan as a Microsoft Country Partner of the Year,” said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Corp. “Systems Limited has distinguished itself as a top partner, exemplifying the remarkable expertise and innovation we see in our Microsoft partner community to deliver transformative solutions.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions over the past year.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Google has unveiled a new search experience making it easier for job seekers in the region to find employment opportunities from popular job listing websites, online classifieds and companies.

The new feature is built directly into Google Search to provide a comprehensive listing of jobs across the web. At launch, job search will have hundreds of thousands of job listings from thousands of sites, including Mustakbil.com, PaperPK.com, Bikroy.com, Ikman.lk and Xpressjobs.lk.

Job seekers can now search for “part-time jobs,” “software developer jobs” or similar unique job-seeking queries, to pull out a special module that can be expanded to a more immersive experience. Clicking on any job in this listing opens an at-a-glance view of comprehensive information about the posting such as job title, location, whether it is full-time or part-time, and several other important details – from summaries and links to reviews and ratings of the employer by trusted sources, to the commute between the workplace and home. The feature will then direct people to the job listing page on the respective website to learn more information or submit their application.

Built to work both on mobile and desktop, job search comes equipped with a number of tools, making it easier for job seekers to find opportunities that fit their unique needs. With smart filters for categories such as job type, location, posting date, or company type, people can get customized results with a couple of taps. Job listings can also be saved or shared with friends and colleagues, and people can sign up for alerts to receive notifications when relevant new listings are posted for those searches.

To help the larger ecosystem of job providers, Google has released open documentation, which will assist organizations big and small to make their job openings discoverable on the new search experience, using open structured schema.org web markup standards that Google supports. Businesses can benefit from the new experience by making their job listings more discoverable on Google, creating a win-win situation for both job-seekers and employers.

The Search experience is available in English on the Google app on Android and iOS, and in Google Search on desktop and mobile.

Day Asia next month

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) After Google’s open call for startups to apply to pitch top investors at Demo Day Asia — taking place this September in Shanghai — we received hundreds of submissions. They came from founders in different countries across Asia-Pacific, in industries as diverse as agriculture, entertainment and healthcare.

It was hard to narrow down this impressive field, but after much painstaking deliberation, the results are in. Out of 305 qualifying applications, the 10 finalists that will take the stage at Demo Day Asia are:

• Marham from Pakistan is a healthcare platform that helps people find, book appointments, and consult with doctors online.
• DycodeX from Indonesia develops Internet of Things solutions for livestock farming.
• FreightExchange from Australia is an online platform for freight carriers to sell their unused space to shippers.
• GITAI from Japan specializes in building robots that can help humans conduct scientific experiments in space.
• Miotech from China is a fintech startup developing artificial intelligence-based software for financial services firms.
• OneStockHome from Thailand offers an e-commerce platform for construction materials.
• Origami Labs from Hong Kong makes smart rings that let people hear and send text messages without taking out their phones.
• SigTuple from India creates AI-based solutions to automate healthcare screening.
• SkyMagic from Singapore produces drone swarming technology for live entertainment and traffic management systems.
• Swingvy from Korea provides human resources solutions for businesses.

We’re proud that several of these companies belong to organisations that are in the Google for Entrepreneurs partner network in Asia-Pacific, including Kibar in Indonesia, Fishburners in Australia, Hubba in Thailand, and Found. in Singapore . The Google for Entrepreneurs partner network is a global community of over 50 co-working spaces and programs supporting startups,

Congratulations to these outstanding startups and their founders! They will pitch to a distinguished panel of leaders from Google for Entrepreneurs, Sequoia Capital and Venturra Capital in a few weeks’ time. The startups that impress could come home with funding from investors and up to US$100,000 in Google Cloud Platform credits. We’re honored to connect such incredible tech companies with investors, and we wish them the best of luck for their pitches.

We are living in a digital world. As technology advance and consumers are becoming more switched on than ever before, it’s never been more important to understand how to harness the power of digital technologies to help improve your career prospects, boost brand awareness, and branch out to your target audience in a way that commands results.

8 in 10 middle-skill jobs are now digitally intensive with roles growing 2.5 times compared to non-digital jobs. The key thing about digital skills is that they can be used in any job role. As more and more companies outsource work to freelancers and entrepreneurship becomes popular, it is important to upskill oneself in the high demand areas and become a global employee.

Realizing the change in tide in the employment market, Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom, Government of Pakistan, through IGNITE, launched the DigiSkills programme on July 8, 2018. It is a nation-wide program to train 1 million people with government certifications, free of cost, in the future of work using technology.

The aim of the programme is to produce a digitally literate population with marketable digital skills that is gainfully employed in a vibrant economy. The programme will offer one million Pakistanis the opportunity to gain marketable digital skills that can transform them into successful freelancers, employees and entrepreneurs.

The courses offered in the first phase of the DigiSkills programme are Freelancing; Digital Marketing; Digital Literacy; E-Commerce Management; Creative Writing; AutoCAD; SEO; WordPress; Graphics Design; QuickBooks. The courses will start on August 1, 2018.

As a platform dedicated to helping businesses and individuals step into the digital world and invest in a brighter future, DigiSkills works to help people save time, streamline their efforts, and stay one step ahead in a digitally transformed world.

It’s plain to see that acquiring digital skills and gaining new qualifications is the key to success in the modern age – and whether you’re a young upstart looking to climb the career ladder, the founder of a startup, or a senior executive in charge of a large team, a failure to keep up with the times could prove disastrous. Anyone can do the courses by registering at www.digiskills.pk. Unemployed, housewives, students, young professionals, and entrepreneurs especially benefit from this programme.

There is no doubt that those who take measures to up skill themselves and offer skills that no one else can will be the ones who will reap the benefits of long-term success in the increasing digital employment space.

Time, tide and digital transformations wait for no one. So our advice is, to make the most of this opportunity that the Government of Pakistan is providing and register for the courses.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Zong 4G continues to embark on its journey to create awareness pertinent 4G and evolution towards 5G. Thus, it conducted an awareness session in one of the most prestigious educational institution Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

Cognizant to its aim to revolutionize the digital landscape in Pakistan, the activity was rooted to make contribution towards development of the 4G ecosystem in Pakistan that has the potential to radically transform Pakistan’s global outlook and economic progression.

Highlighting Zong 4G’s journey towards the No. 1 4G data network, it was elaborated that the technological prowess of the company is backed by support from its parent organization, China Mobile Communication Corporation, which is a key rationale for Zong 4G to be at forefront of market. Likewise, the content of the session also highlighted the paradigm shifts in the technology which has rendered towards emergence of new opportunities to reinvent and offer best services to customers.

IoT is the future so information regarding the smart solutions based on M2M and IoT technologies that are currently being facilitated through 4G were also shared with students.  Additionally, it laid out the pivotal role of 5G, which will be an essential driver for customer innovation, data-driven optimization and automation, transformation, development of entirely new applications and business models across the sector and beyond.

Giving students the glimpse of the first- hand experience of real and best 4G network, they were briefed about how transition takes place in reality. With a 4G research lab already established in LUMS in 2017, the students were excited to advance their academic endeavors along latest technological lines, greatly enhancing their learning experience.

True development entails composite of entire nation, in each and every domain. For touching the progress in telecom sector , sessions like this conducted by Zong 4G will go a long way in spreading awareness for the need and utility of high speed 4G internet in the country and ultimately leading the Pakistan towards digitalization.

Serving more than 6 million 4G subscribers, Zong 4G continues to bring the endless possibilities of the country’s digital potential to life.