News Update Times

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) British Council is partnering with PoliNations on the Pakistan-UK New Perspectives Season to mark the 75^th anniversary of Pakistan. The partnership seeks to create an artistic response to the themes of PoliNations, including celebrating diversity and the cross-pollination of culture, exploring the influence of journeys along the silk road and the history of tea.

New Perspectives showcases the cultural wealth and contemporary creativity of both countries, facilitating professional collaboration for culture, creative and education sectors, with a focus on a shared future through building lasting partnerships.

Created and produced by Trigger Collective, PoliNations is part of the UK-wide UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. This project will culminate in the Birmingham 2022 Festival and will be open to all through free events across multiple art forms. The festival will celebrate the beauty, colour, and diversity that makes up British horticulture and culture. Up-and-coming and renowned artists from Birmingham and beyond will perform under the shelter of giant architectural trees and surrounded by thousands of colourful plants.

In June PoliNations’ costume designer Joey A Frenette travelled to Pakistan to collaborate with renowned Pakistan based designers Yousuf Bashir Qureshi and Riffat Aliani during a residency in Karachi to design and create costumes influenced by the journey of tea, for special performances as part of the PoliNations programme in Birmingham in 2022.

In collaboration with Yousuf Bashir Qureshi Studios Institute, the designers showcased their work at The PoliNations Pakistan Costume Show on Saturday 18^th June at the Commune Artist Colony, Karachi.

Distinguished sitar player Rakae Jamil, who has been commissioned to write and record two new compositions responding to the themes surrounding tea and the tulip, also gave a soulful performance.

PoliNations Creative Director and Artistic Director of Trigger, Angie Bual said: “We’re so excited by the creative opportunity and collaboration this partnership provides. Exploring, celebrating and learning from the diversity and creativity across our cultures is at the heart of what PoliNations is – so being part of this season and collaborating with such talented Pakistan based creatives through the programme is a really exciting opportunity for us.”

Laila Jamil, Director Arts, British Council Pakistan said: “The British Council is very pleased to have enabled this cultural exchange programme between UK and Pakistani artists. It’s exciting to have collaborative projects for fashion and music under the PK-UK Season. This is a great programme for learning and future collaboration in the arts.”

After this event, the costumes are being transported to Birmingham to be showcased in a spectacular fashion by renowned dancers for a special series of performances at the festival.

Karachi (Nut Desk)  “Pakistan High tech sector is committed to upholding the highest level of defense preparedness”, was stated by Dr. Haroon Qureshi, President of Pakistan Aerospace Council in his speech at a dinner hosted in honour of Air Marshal Shahid Hamid (Retd) and Air Marshal Arshad Malik (Retd) for their lifetime achievements and services to Pakistan Aerospace & Defence Sector. Air Marshal Muhammad Mughees Afzal, Chairman Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Air Marshal Ahmed Hassan Marwat, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Engineering) and Executives from 25 member companies of Pakistan Aerospace Council also attended the event. Mr. Imtiaz Rastgar, Convener PAeC in his welcome speech, paid rich tributes to Air Marshal Shahid Hamid (Retd) and Air Marshal Arshad Malik (Retd) for their life time achievements and services rendered to Pakistan and Pakistan Aerospace & Defence Sector. He pointed out that collaboration between Pakistan Aerospace & Defence Sector and the private tech industry could lead to indigenization and save a huge amount of foreign reserves. Dr. Haroon Javed Qureshi, President PAeC in his speech highlighted the depth, potential, know-how, skills and manufacturing capabilities of PAeC member High Tech companies. Expressing PAeCs gratitude for the two national heroes, he said, we need more Shahid Hamids and Arshad Maliks for a potent and self-reliant Pakistan. Executives of PAeC member companies comingled with the former and current PAF leadership and discussed with them the potential, manufacturing capabilities and processes their companies possess. The current and former PAF leadership was impressed to learn about the manufacturing skills of PAeC member companies and reiterated that their skills and services could be further utilized to meet the challenges faced by Pakistan Aerospace & Defence Sector. Chairman Pakistan Aeronautical Complex invited PAeC member companies to visit PAC, Kamra for further collaboration. Mr Imtiaz Rastgar suggested having a joint seminar, in this regard, at Islamabad in near future.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Companies worldwide are adapting to a rapidly evolving reality of work that employs technological products and services for an ever-improving customer experience. To stay ahead of the curve and meet the changing needs of businesses around the country, Telenor Pakistan launched Telenor Business Solutions last year.

Designed with the ambition to strengthen the business performance and capability of organisations in every sector, Telenor Business Solutions equips partners with the tools necessary to step into the future with complete peace of mind. Recently, Telenor Pakistan partnered with Daewoo Adda, Pakistan’s fastest growing trucking platform and a Daewoo Group’s affiliated company – to provide them with a tailor-made enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to manage and automate a wide range of business processes.

With successful operations throughout the country, Daewoo Adda facilitates companies and transporters of all sizes to address critical challenges via their advanced tech platform and cutting-edge IoT solutions. Telenor’s multi-platform application provides seamless load-matching, freight booking, dispatching, and delivery services to an otherwise fragmented USD$34 billion market.

Telenor Business has been an integral part of the network’s corporate clientele. Its sophisticated suite of products and services gives businesses the tools to function efficiently and dynamically for years. Telenor Business’s state-of-the-art ERP solution for Daewoo Adda is a system of integrated and centralised applications that help manage and automate CRM, Sales & Invoicing, Accounting & Finance, human resources, and various business operations—enabling them to become cost-efficient and productive.

“An important consideration for businesses that aim to be future-ready is whether or not their customers are getting the maximum value they deserve,” said Omer Bin Tariq, Chief Business Officer, Telenor Pakistan. “Telenor Pakistan offers startups, small and medium enterprises, and large organisations the opportunity to experience greater flexibility, especially regarding safeguarding their customers’ expectations. Daewoo Adda is the perfect partner for Telenor because they are an extremely agile and technologically advanced platform striving to exceed customer aspirations. Today, it is increasingly important for businesses to keep abreast of the changing times and adopt the latest technologies and best-in-class solutions to enter global markets,” he further added

“For Daewoo Adda, a robust and scalable ERP solution was a key requirement in integrating fintech and localising global perspectives to offer an evolution beyond traditional trucking. Telenor’s solution is turn key and allows for digitised process visibility & automation capabilities across key business functions. In addition, its flexible payment model without heavy upfront investments makes it ideal for implementation for organisations looking to streamline operational capability whilst maintaining financial prudence,” said Mr Tariq Ellahi, Executive Chairman & Founder Daewoo Adda.

Telenor Pakistan’s Business suite comprises four key streams: customised enterprise solutions, mobility solutions, IoT &  Data as a Service (DaaS). In addition to Daewoo Adda, Telenor Pakistan has successfully equipped various businesses of all sizes to thrive in a complex business environment. It aims to offer secure, reliable, one-window operations with reliable infrastructure, improved visibility into operations and performance, secure digital access and advanced monitoring and analysis capabilities.

Telenor Pakistan routinely holds country-wide events to connect with new and existing business clients and showcase its entire range of IoT solutions through its experience zones.

The signing ceremony was also attended by Ghulam Hasnain Nasir – VP B2B Telenor, Kamran Tariq – Country General Manager Daewoo Adda and Wali Mohammad – Head of Enterprises Solution Telenor.

 

Islamabad (Muhammad Yasir)  Paymob, a leading Egyptian payment solutions facilitator announces the appointment of Mr. Fawad Abdul Kader as the Country Head for their Pakistan operations, effective April 2022. 

Mr. Kader is a fin-tech project specialist with extensive in-depth knowledge and implementation experience in the financial services industry. He has played a key strategic role in the development and deployment of financial services solutions for various financial institutions across Pakistan.

Mr. Omar El-Gammal, SVP Global Business Development Paymob (Egypt) remarked, “Paymob is very excited to have Fawad lead the operations in Pakistan. His diverse experience in fin-tech project implementation in the country is key to unlocking the right strategy for market expansion.”

More recently, Mr. Kader served as the Head of Digital Financial Services at NIFT and helped establish an aggregated domestic payment gateway under the brand name NIFT ePay. During this time, he spearheaded the introduction of an aggregated account-based direct debit service along with card and wallet-based payments for online businesses. Mr. Kader has previously served as a consultant for National Savings Digitization Project with Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) for a project funded by Karandaaz. He has also served as a Business Unit Head for numerous premier banking institutions in Pakistan, including Bank Alfalah and MCB. Throughout his professional journey, he has been a key player in developing and executing strategies aimed at facilitating the fintech and digital payment ecosystem in Pakistan. 

Mr. Kader joined Paymob in April of 2022 as the Country Manager of Paymob Pakistan. At the announcement, he stated, “As an advocate and facilitator of fin-tech infrastructure networks, I am very excited to start this new journey at Paymob Pakistan. Their omnichannel payment system, diverse product suite, and aggressive market strategy coupled with their ties in the international market and their mission to facilitate merchants everywhere are key elements of their success.  I look forward to utilizing Paymob’s successful experience to empower 100,000 merchants by 2024 all across Pakistan working closely with my team.”

Paymob is the leading MENAP digital payments enabler that builds payments infrastructure technologies empowering businesses and merchants of all sizes with access to financial services. Paymob is bridging the financial inclusion gap in the region by enabling businesses to benefit from the power of its unified commerce solution.

Paymob chose to invest in the Pakistani market as it sees a significant opportunity for increasing its internet GDP. Pakistan has a population of over 220 million, with more than 5 million retail outlets and MSME businesses across its cities that use just over 80,000 POS terminals, and less than 3,000 e-commerce gateways, meaning it is “perfectly suited” to Paymob’s ability to bridge the digital financial gap and meets the company’s criteria and strategy to expand further across MENAP, and globally.

Paymob aims to create a positive impact on the Pakistani ecosystem by empowering MSMEs across all Pakistani cities with online and face to face digital financial solutions to manage and grow their businesses. Paymob’s advanced technology offers instant on boarding features for the first time in Pakistan using products such as Payment Gateways, POS, and Soft POS.

 

YC-backed logistics start-up scoops seed round from the popular YC Demo Day as they seek to ramp up the logistics space in Pakistan and create an Amazon-like next-day delivery service for the e-commerce businesses that are expected to grow 16% CAGR, making it a $10.5B opportunity by 2025.

 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Rider, Pakistan’s first-ever logistics start-up to be backed by YC, is building modern logistics for online sellers across the country. In doing so, the start-up has attracted the attention of investors and as of today, it is announcing a $3.1M funding in collaboration with YCombinator and new investors including i2i Ventures, Flexport, Soma Capital, and Rebel Fund. The round also included the existing investors such as Global Founders Capital, Fatima Gobi Ventures (FGV), and TPL E-ventures along with the notable angel investor; Arash Ferdowsi (Co-Founder Dropbox). With this seed round, Rider has now raised a total of $5.4M since September 2021. 

 

Founded in 2019, Rider has been building a network of sorting hubs, urban delivery centers, and a digitized fleet, offering online sellers in Pakistan a next-day ‘Amazon-like’ delivery service. The Rider platform offers route optimization for delivery agents, live tracking and scheduling for buyers, and a highly digitized warehousing function for sellers. Being led by Salman Allana, a former UPS Pakistan executive, the core team of Rider consists of former executives from Alibaba, Delivery Hero, and Jumo.

 

Since their pre-seed investment round in September 2021, Rider’s monthly revenues have grown by 110% and their customer base has doubled to 650 online sellers. Rider has now successfully completed the delivery of over 3M parcels across 60 cities in Pakistan. 

 

Salman Allana, founder, and CEO of Rider commented: “We launched Rider because we knew the traditional courier companies in Pakistan were not set up to serve the e-commerce market and were failing to capture the online buying trend. The problem is huge, circa $1B GMV is lost annually due to failed and slow deliveries, but the opportunity is even bigger than that. Pakistan is the 5th most populous country in the world with 70% smartphone enablement, yet only 3% of retail sales are currently made online. We are really excited about the market potential and the impact of Rider in supporting business growth across the country.”

 

Rider has plans to enhance the e-commerce marketplace in Pakistan with solutions and infrastructure beyond logistics. Salman Allana added: “Retail is north of a $150B industry. Yet, it is stuck in bricks and mortar. Through our platform, one mile at a time, we are enabling the industry to transform and get online along with more offerings in the time to come. Moreover, we are opening the industry to more participants and changing the face of it. We are fully behind the mission to enable more than 1 million, primarily female-owned Instagram/Facebook sellers to trade.”

 

“Pakistan’s payment infrastructure is chasing the growth of e-commerce and logistics capabilities. While over 95% of all e-commerce orders are cash-on-delivery (COD), it creates operational challenges for last mile and retailers. Rider is addressing this piece of the puzzle with our payment wallet through which we can reconcile work quickly and ensure sellers are reimbursed within hours.”

 

On joining the investment round Kalsoom Lakhani, GP i2i Ventures said: “We are honored to be on this journey with Rider. As the e-commerce industry in Pakistan grows, so will the need for a next-generation 3PL player that understands the realities of the Pakistani market and knows how to build both aggressively, yet efficiently. We believe in the vision of Salman for Rider.”  

 

Meanwhile, the new investor; Jared Heyman, Managing Partner, Rebel Fund commented: “Rider is Rebel Fund’s first investment in Pakistan and we are excited to support their further growth. The company’s founding team and traction to date are impressive, and we believe that Pakistan’s market desperately needs a sophisticated technology-driven delivery service like Rider.”

 

FGV’s General Partner Ali Mukhtar commented: “There is strong momentum in the e-commerce space in Pakistan, which is largely driven by the shift in consumer behavior with the increase in 3G/4G penetration across the country. With this, there is the immense growth potential for last-mile champions such as Rider who are building the required infrastructure to enable growth in the e-commerce space. We believe in the Company’s tech-first approach and we are once again excited to support Salman and his team at Rider.”

 

Willem Van Den Bosch, Investor at SOMA Capital remarked: “We think Rider is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the expansion of e-commerce in Pakistan. Rider’s core tech-forward product offering fixes legacy pitfalls that exist in the last-mile fulfillment market today. Rider’s B2B2C offering fixes issues with delivery failures, lateness, and broken communication which have hampered the expansion of e-commerce previously. We are extremely supportive of the Rider team’s ability to execute and expand deeper into the full logistics product stack and continue to enable e-commerce fulfillment in Pakistan and beyond.”

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  PayFast by APPS (“PayFast”) is proud to become the first fintech in Pakistan to partner with international payments leader Visa through Cybersource. The nature of the partnership sees Cybersource offering its robust and dynamic digital payment solution suite to PayFast. It includes E-commerce checkout, digital merchant platform, Fraud Management, and SoftPOS. This initiative paves the path for PayFast to offer a dynamic and secure payment gateway with user friendly UI/UX, thereby helping businesses to offer the acceptance of online payments through debit and credit cards. The partnership serves as a milestone that advances PayFast’s commitment to bring the company, and Pakistan, to the forefront of the regional fintech landscape. The State Bank licensed and regulated PSO/PSP envisions to extend its reach across international borders, starting with the MENA region Further, the integration helps expand PayFast’s SoftPos initiative, which will greatly enhance digital payment acceptance for merchants of all sizes by introducing fast, secure, and cost-effective solutions for them to collect online payments. Currently, POS penetration in Pakistan is staggeringly low, with just over 90,000 POS terminals deployed nationwide compared to the millions of merchants in the market. One of the major reasons is the high setup costs that prevent acquirers to serve medium or small sized businesses. As the trend of contactless payments has grown worldwide by over 40% in the past two years, merchants will benefit from a simple, secure, and affordable digital solution to drive sales and maximize their revenue potential. By integrating Cybersource, PayFast can offer the ease, affordability, and speed of integration with SoftPos to its merchants. Arshad Raza, Chairman– PayFast commended the company’s efforts: “PayFast aspires to make online payment acceptance hassle-free in Pakistan. By onboarding Visa directly through Cybersource, Ecommerce & Business partners of PayFast will gain access to the world’s most advanced industry standards, steering us closer towards this aim. We mark this as a pivotal chapter in our company’s history– especially as we venture to extend our services internationally.”

Adnan Ali, CEO– PayFast, added: “Visa has transformed payment acceptance for businesses worldwide. PayFast’s most recent partnership with them, through Cybersource, is a testament to our innovative strategies and continued promise to bolster Pakistan’s image on an international level. It also reaffirms our vision to make safe, fast and secure digital payment solutions in Pakistan the norm. We are excited to deliver an optimal experience to our clients through this new step and I am proud of the team for securing this feat of making PayFast the first ever Pakistani fintech to partner directly with Visa.” Leila Serhan, Visa’s Group Country Manager for North Africa, Levant and Pakistan, commented: “As Pakistani consumers increasingly shift online, fraudsters have looked for more ways to exploit them. It is important that merchants are equipped to combat fraud and ensure that consumers feel safe using digital payments over cash-on-delivery. At Visa, we believe cybersecurity is a collective effort, and this partnership with PayFast is a testament to our efforts to help local merchants with their digital transformation.” Kamil Khan, Visa’s Country Manager for Pakistan, added: “We are excited to partner with PayFast, the first Pakistani fintech company to launch our dynamic Cybersource solution, which offers multiple benefits to merchants and provides customers with a frictionless, secure, and convenient payment solution. We believe this initiative will pave the way for Pakistan’s cashless future.”

Present at the signing ceremony were: Ms. Leila Serhan, Visa- Group Country Manager for North Africa, Levant and Pakistan; Mr. Kamil Khan, Visa- Country Manager for Pakistan; Mr. Amaar Shaikh, Visa- Merchant Sales & Acquiring (Levant and Pakistan); Ms. Bisma Rizwan, Visa- Merchant Sales & Acceptance; Qandeel Fatima- Business Development Manager; Mr. Arshad Raza, PayFast-Chairman; Mr. Adnan Ali, PayFast-CEO; Mr. Faisal Alam, PayFast- Chief Information Officer; Mr. Soheb Roomi, PayFast-Marketing Team Lead; Mr. Fahad Khan, PayFast- Chief Compliance & Risk Officer; Mr. Yousuf Aziz, Head of Digital Payments & Services; Daniyal Ahmed, PayFast- Head of Sales; Jawad Hassan, PayFast- Head of Strategic Partnerships.

NOTE: PayFast is product by Avanza Premier Payment Services (APPS).

To learn more about PayFast visit: www.gopayfast.com

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) DAO PropTech is Pakistan’s fastest-growing real estate technology platform. Aiming to introduce a data-backed approach in the real estate sector, it is playing its part in making real estate investments accessible for everyone.

DAO PropTech was invited to the Aiwan-e-Sadr, where they were given the “Proptech.

Innovation Award” by the President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi. Jawad Nayyar, the Founder and Chief Vision Officer at DAO PropTech received the award on behalf of the organization. In the post-ceremony interview, Nayyar said, “This award belongs to the team at DAO PropTech, who believe in our vision and are on path towards building Pakistan’s fastest growing, digital PropTech platform. The support of the policymakers and regulators is especially very encouraging. It’s still a long way to go for us but the future is really promising, with exciting times ahead.”

In addition to the presidential award, DAO PropTech received a special recognition award at the RCCI Technology Expo 2022, for its efforts to bring transparency and inclusivity to the real estate ecosystem. Abdullah Khan, Chief Product Officer at DAO PropTech, received the award on behalf of the organization. He thanked the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce & Industry for organizing such expos. He said, “I feel elated that our vision to bring financial freedom to the masses is being recognized and appreciated. In less than 2 years, DAO PropTech has evolved from an idea to an established technology platform trusted by thousands of investors. Events like the RCCI technology expo are a great platform for forward-thinking companies to showcase their innovation. The day isn’t far when Pakistan will be the hub of technology and innovation.”

www.daoproptech.com