Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday welcomed the recent investment worth
$85 million by the world’s leading Venture Capitals in a Pakistani tech start-up, Airlift.
“We welcome the recent investment of $85 million by leading VCs of the world in Airlift, a company led by young Pakistanis,” he said in a tweet.
The prime minister said Pakistan had huge potential as the country was open for business.
He expressed the government’s commitment to creating opportunities for foreign investors.
“My government is fully committed to creating opportunities,” the prime minister said.
Responding to the prime minister’s tweet, Airlift thanked him for bringing attention to the milestone, adding that it would pave the way for more investments in Pakistani startups.
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar also praised the achievement. He said he was “glad” to share that global investors were exhibiting confidence in Pakistan’s evolving technology space.
Azhar Mashwani, Punjab chief minister’s focal person for digital media, meanwhile, pointed out that investment in Pakistani startups had increased from $170m between 2015 and 2020 to $193m in 2021 alone.
“Best of luck to Airlift and all others,” he tweeted.
The $85m amount raised is around twice the size of the largest private company initial public offering in Pakistan’s history and the highest in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Airlift Technologies Co-founder and CEO Usman Gul said the financing would add five per cent to the country’s foreign direct investment for the fiscal year 2022.
“A year ago, Airlift halted operations on the transit service and diversified into last-mile grocery delivery. Today, our team closed $85m in Series B financing to scale our delivery platform across continents.
“With this financing, we as Pakistanis must return to where we started from fighting against the odds and staying true to our core values of hustle, teamwork, resourcefulness, and bias to action. If this is the journey of a thousand miles, we have taken only the first step,” he said.
Airlift, a Lahore-based online shopping delivery service, has raised $85 million in Series B financing, the largest single private funding round in Pakistan’s history.
The financing is about twice the size of the largest private company IPO in the country’s history and the highest in the Middle East & North Africa region.
with additional input from APP
