FinTech Startup TAG Raises $12 Million in Pakistan’s Largest Seed Funding Round

Pakistan’s financial technology startup, TAG Innovation Pvt. Limited, raised more than $12 million in Pakistan’s largest seed funding round. This pushes the startup’s total financing to date to over $17.5 million, and raises the company’s valuation to about $100 million. After the funding, the company is valued at $100 million, according to Bloomberg. The valuation compares with an average $386 million for Pakistan’s 21 listed lenders, it added. Liberty City Ventures, Canaan Partners, Addition, Mantis, and Banana Capital took part in the round.  TAG is Pakistan’s first digital retail bank that allows customers to open a bank account and access banking services online. The Founder and CEO of TAG, Talal Gondal, told TechCrunch that, “We eventually want to offer the complete set of banking and financial services to users in Pakistan.” Gondal, who worked as an investor in Europe for seven years, founded the company in 2020. “We are trying to become both Revolut and Paytm in Pakistan,” he said, referring to successful digital payments and banking services platforms. TAG allows customers to open a bank account within three minutes, Gondal explained and allows them to conduct transactions online like paying utility bills and transferring money. Previously, TAG raised $5.5 million in its pre-seed financing round in May, led by venture capitalists Quiet Capital and Liberty City Ventures. In recent months, Pakistani startups have succeeded in securing record-breaking funding. E-commerce startup Airlift announced that it had raised $85 million in Series B financing, the largest in the MENA region, while Bazaar earned $30 million in Series A funding. Similarly, the online trucking marketplace BridgeLinx brought in $10 million in seed financing, and EdTech startup Maqsad raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding. Pakistan’s flourishing startup environment seems to be focusing mainly on e-commerce and financial technology, which ties in with the country’s push towards digitization. Gondal explained that every country’s startup sector goes through waves of development, such as in India, and that he believed that Pakistan would follow that same trend. Murtaza Akbar, the Managing Partner at Liberty City Ventures, said in a statement, “Liberty City Ventures is proud to support a visionary leader like Talal in his efforts to expand financial inclusion for the underserved and underbanked. We expect the world class team he has assembled at TAG to build a regional Fintech powerhouse.”