KARACHI: Pakistani start-ups raised a total of $15.1 million in eight deals in the October-December quarter, the lowest since the first quarter of 2020 when the funding size amounted to $5m.
Statistics compiled by Data Darbar, a website that tracks investment flows into the country’s tech ecosystem, showed on Saturday the quarterly funding plunged 79.2pc on a year-on-year basis. The drop was 72.6pc from the preceding quarter.
The average ticket size dropped to $2.5m while the median ticket size slipped to $1.1m — the lowest since the first quarter of 2021.
“Rising inflation and an increase in the US Federal Reserve’s policy rate has been a dampener for VC (venture capitalist) asset class, which has been underperforming the markets this year. The phenomenon is global and not specific to Pakistan. But due to our small base, any change is more amplified,” Data Darbar co-founder Mutaher Khan told Dawn in an interview on Saturday.
Pakistan’s startup ecosystem has been in financial turmoil. Heavily funded start-ups like instant-delivery service provider Airlift and mobility player Swvl shut down operations altogether while other firms have either rolled back services or laid off employees.
As for the possible change in the global trend, Mr Khan said it depends on the reversal in the US Federal Reserve’s stance. “For Pakistan, it might come with a further lag, by the beginning of 2024 possibly,” he said.
The deal count fell to the single digits (eight) for the first time since...
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