Afiniti and Careem: Tech Unicorns Made in Pakistan
Afiniti and Careem are two technology unicorns engineered in Pakistan by Pakistanis. AI (artificial intelligence) startup Afiniti software has largely been engineered in Lahore while taxi hailing service Careem's technology has mostly been developed in Karachi. Here's more about these unicorns:
Careem:
Careem is a taxi hailing app that is giving its American competitor Uber a run for its money in a region stretching from Pakistan to the Middle East and North Africa. The company cofounded by Mudassir Sheika, a Pakistani national, is headquartered in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Careem's last round was valued at over a billion dollars when it raised $350 million from Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) at the end of 2016, according to Tech Crunch.
Careem's software has been developed by its technology partner VentureDive based in Karachi, Pakistan. VentureDive was started by serial Pakistani entrepreneur Atif Azim who sold his earlier startup Perfigo to network equipment giant Cisco for $74 million in 2004, according to a report in Tech in Asia.
Atif launched VentureDive in 2011 and took a small equity stake in Careem in exchange for building its entire tech stack – including the app, the website, and other digital platforms. That small stake has now grown to $50 million.
In 2016, Careem acquired VentureDive's engineering team working on its technology to give the engineers more ownership of the product – now they are getting equity stake in Careem and larger bonuses.
Afiniti:
Washington D.C. based AI technology firm Afiniti, founded by serial Pakistani-American entrepreneur Zia Chishti, has filed for initial public offering (IPO) at $1.6 billion valuation, according to VentureBeat. The company has grown out of the technology used in the Pakistan-based call center business of The Resource Group (TRG) also founded by Zia Chishti.
Bulk of the Afiniti development team is located in Thokar Niaz Baig, Lahore. In addition, the company has development team members in Islamabad and Karachi.
Chishti founded his first company Align Technology in 1997 in Silicon Valley. It creates clear plastic braces for straightening teeth by using advanced 3-D computer imaging. The technology now trademarked as Invisalign has helped millions of people straighten their teeth for a beautiful smile without enduring the pain and unsightly looks of the traditional steel brackets and wires used in orthodontics. Align Technology is now valued at $10 billion.
Afiniti uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to enable real-time, optimized pairing of individual call center agents with individual customers in large enterprises for best results. When a customer contacts a call center, Afiniti matches his or her phone number with any information related to it from up to 100 databases, according to VentureBeat. These databases carry purchase history, income, credit history, social media profiles and other demographic information. Based on this information, Afiniti routes the call directly to an agent who has been determined, based on their own history, to be most effective in closing deals with customers who have similar characteristics.
Summary:
Pakistan is an emerging center of technology with at least two unicorns, Afiniti and Careem, engineered by Pakistanis in Pakistan. With growing numbers of young homegrown Pakistani technologists, a highly skilled diaspora and an evolving startup ecosystem with incubators, accelerators and investors, the country is beginning to demonstrate its vast potential as a vibrant technology hub of the future. Provincial governments, particularly those in Punjab and KP, are showing leadership in encouraging this trend. The main ingredients are all coming together to make things happen in Pakistan.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
OPEN Silicon Valley Forum 2017: Pakistani Entrepreneurs Conference
Pakistani-American's Tech Unicorn Files For IPO at $1.6 Billion Valuation
Pakistani-American Cofounders Sell Startup to Cisco for $610 million
Pakistani Brothers Spawned $20 Billion Security Software Industry
Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fireeye Goes Public
Pakistani-American Pioneered 3D Technology in Orthodontics
Pakistani-Americans Enabling 2nd Machine Revolution
Pakistani-American Shahid Khan Richest South Asian in America
Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals
Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision
Careem:
Careem is a taxi hailing app that is giving its American competitor Uber a run for its money in a region stretching from Pakistan to the Middle East and North Africa. The company cofounded by Mudassir Sheika, a Pakistani national, is headquartered in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Careem's last round was valued at over a billion dollars when it raised $350 million from Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) at the end of 2016, according to Tech Crunch.
Careem's software has been developed by its technology partner VentureDive based in Karachi, Pakistan. VentureDive was started by serial Pakistani entrepreneur Atif Azim who sold his earlier startup Perfigo to network equipment giant Cisco for $74 million in 2004, according to a report in Tech in Asia.
Atif launched VentureDive in 2011 and took a small equity stake in Careem in exchange for building its entire tech stack – including the app, the website, and other digital platforms. That small stake has now grown to $50 million.
In 2016, Careem acquired VentureDive's engineering team working on its technology to give the engineers more ownership of the product – now they are getting equity stake in Careem and larger bonuses.
Afiniti Development Team in Lahore, Pakistan. Source: Afiniti.com |
Afiniti:
Washington D.C. based AI technology firm Afiniti, founded by serial Pakistani-American entrepreneur Zia Chishti, has filed for initial public offering (IPO) at $1.6 billion valuation, according to VentureBeat. The company has grown out of the technology used in the Pakistan-based call center business of The Resource Group (TRG) also founded by Zia Chishti.
Bulk of the Afiniti development team is located in Thokar Niaz Baig, Lahore. In addition, the company has development team members in Islamabad and Karachi.
Chishti founded his first company Align Technology in 1997 in Silicon Valley. It creates clear plastic braces for straightening teeth by using advanced 3-D computer imaging. The technology now trademarked as Invisalign has helped millions of people straighten their teeth for a beautiful smile without enduring the pain and unsightly looks of the traditional steel brackets and wires used in orthodontics. Align Technology is now valued at $10 billion.
Afiniti uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to enable real-time, optimized pairing of individual call center agents with individual customers in large enterprises for best results. When a customer contacts a call center, Afiniti matches his or her phone number with any information related to it from up to 100 databases, according to VentureBeat. These databases carry purchase history, income, credit history, social media profiles and other demographic information. Based on this information, Afiniti routes the call directly to an agent who has been determined, based on their own history, to be most effective in closing deals with customers who have similar characteristics.
Summary:
Pakistan is an emerging center of technology with at least two unicorns, Afiniti and Careem, engineered by Pakistanis in Pakistan. With growing numbers of young homegrown Pakistani technologists, a highly skilled diaspora and an evolving startup ecosystem with incubators, accelerators and investors, the country is beginning to demonstrate its vast potential as a vibrant technology hub of the future. Provincial governments, particularly those in Punjab and KP, are showing leadership in encouraging this trend. The main ingredients are all coming together to make things happen in Pakistan.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
OPEN Silicon Valley Forum 2017: Pakistani Entrepreneurs Conference
Pakistani-American's Tech Unicorn Files For IPO at $1.6 Billion Valuation
Pakistani-American Cofounders Sell Startup to Cisco for $610 million
Pakistani Brothers Spawned $20 Billion Security Software Industry
Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fireeye Goes Public
Pakistani-American Pioneered 3D Technology in Orthodontics
Pakistani-Americans Enabling 2nd Machine Revolution
Pakistani-American Shahid Khan Richest South Asian in America
Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals
Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision
Comments
https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/14/uber-rival-careem-closes-500m-raise-at-1b-valuation-as-daimler-steps-in/
Amid ongoing struggles at Uber, one of its stronger regional rivals in transportation on demand has raised a significant round of funding, picking up a significant strategic investor in the process. Careem, a transportation startup currently in 80 cities across the Middle East, has raised another $150 million — closing out a $500 million Series E round that it confirmed in December when it announced the first $350 million tranche. With the new funds, Mudassir Sheikha, Careem’s co-founder and CEO, confirmed that Careem’s valuation is now over $1 billion. A separate source tells us more precisely that the funding is now $1.2 billion.
This latest tranche is being led by Saudi-based Kingdom Holding, the VC that also backs Lyft and invested in Twitter and Snap before they went public. German automaker Daimler (which itself has acquired Hailo in the UK, Taxibeat in Greece and MyTaxi in Germany), and VCs DCM Ventures and Coatue Management also participated. (A source confirms to us that the overall $500 million is being led by Rakuten, which invested in the first tranche.)
“With our investment in Careem, we are now taking the strategic step to becoming the world’s leading provider of mobility services,” Klaus Entenmann, CEO, Daimler Financial Services AG, said in a statement. “Careem has quickly leapt to the leadership of ridesharing within the MENA regions by delivering rapid innovation and customer growth, and it is spearheading new ways to transport people from point A to point B.”
This is a significant Series E for Careem — previously, the company had only raised $72 million. The size of the round speaks of the opportunity that investors see right now to grow more regional transportation services — both in direct competition with Uber and incumbent forms of transportation, as well as to tap a very big opportunity.
In the case of Careem, the latter is actually the stronger force at the moment. Sheikha — who co-founded the company with Magnus Olsson (who is the MD) — estimates that Careem plus Uber account for only around 1 percent of the potential market for transportation services in the region.
“When it comes to ride hailing, Uber is the primary competitor, but between us we’re serving just 1 percent of the opportunity,” he said, “so the biggest challenge is just growing.
“Dubai is a truly global city, but as soon as you leave Dubai for places like Oman or Cairo or many other cities, you realise that public transport infrastructure is not extensive. Plus, in our markets, if you look at the numbers, car ownership is also very low. Transportation is supply-constrained.”
Indeed, while half the world is railing about how Uber has treated women over the years, the challenges are of a decidedly different nature in Careem’s neck of the woods.
While women can drive in some places, in many they cannot, and many simply do not. “Women want to go out to school, college and work but cannot go because there is no car available,” he said. Many rely on fathers, brothers and husbands to get them around. “Transportation and lack of public transport what we are trying to address and reliably remove that constraint.”
Another issue that is perhaps more specific to Careem’s place as a startup mostly focused on emerging markets: payments. The vast majority of consumers either do not have credit or debit cards, or simply prefer to pay in cash, so Careem has had to adjust accordingly.
The company has come up with a mix of interesting solutions, including a network of people in its cities who act as collection managers, taking funds and then paying out drivers. And it also has developed an in-app wallet, where your change can be deposited after a ride if your driver doesn’t have it to hand, and then used for a future trip. The wallet also acts as a credit account for the highest-rated passengers.
https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/18/the-deanbeat-3-pakistani-brothers-ensure-mobile-game-chat-isnt-lost-in-translation/
Game developers can grow up anywhere these days.these days, and the latest example of that are the Zaeem brothers from Pakistan. Saad, Ammar, and Shayan have created two startups: one that makes mobile games, and a new venture that is creating a platform for multilingual chat in games.
The startups have created jobs in their hometown in Lahore, Pakistan, and Silicon Valley. Their successes are modest by the valley’s standards. But growing up in their part of the world, they overcame a lot of odds and made a rare successful tech and game startup in a fast-moving industry. I met them at a party at the Seattle Aquarium at the game event Casual Connect USA, and their story intrigued me. I met them again at a coffee house in Palo Alto, California, and I listened.
Their Pakistan company, Caramel Tech Studios, has been making mobile games since 2011, and they are creating a new San Francisco startup, Fizz, that promises to do real-time translation for text chat in mobile games. Saad is heading that effort, and he has moved to Silicon Valley to raise money and build the company’s connections to others.
The brothers credit their entrepreneurial spirit to their father, who’s in textiles and taught them about startups and business. In the late 1990s, when Saad was 14 and Ammar was 12, they learned how to create websites. One company hired them for $700 or so, and that was a lot of money for young Pakistani entrepreneurs. Their parents “acquired” their company and urged them to stay in school.
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And that story is replaying everywhere where people grow up playing games, study technology, and try to create their own businesses. Part of the inspiration is Silicon Valley’s fairy tale rags-to-riches stories, and part is the desire to play and learn how to build games.
“Back in the ’80s and ’90s, families wanted their children to become medical doctors,” Ammar said. “Now it’s engineering.”
Their lives have been full of lucky breaks, made more frequent by their dedication. Ammar was interested in investing in stocks. Saad, the oldest, joined a startup without a salary. He helped the business grow and get work for hire. Then the brothers set up their own company, making software and games for hire. Halfbrick Studios, the Australian game company that made Fruit Ninja, gave the Zaeem brothers their lucky break. It hired them to build a version of Fruit Ninja for the Nokia Symbian phone platform.
“The biggest problem we had was having the cash flow to take bigger risks,” Ammar said.
The Halfbrick deal enabled them to boost the company to 22 people in Lahore, which had a good university that produced technical graduates. The Halfbrick job led to more work with Kabam, a mobile game company that made hits such as Kingdoms of Camelot. Andrew Sheppard, then head of studios for Kabam, put Caramel Tech Studios to work on a mobile card strategy game, Order of Elements. The studio then worked for Animoca, a Hong Kong company, to build an Astro Boy mobile game.
Apple liked the idea of a game company in Pakistan, and it featured the title that the brothers made. One of their games, Blades of Battle, has been featured by Apple in 137 countries.
After a while, Caramel Tech Studios started making its own games. That was like moving up the food chain, and it led to more deals. Then Saad stepped down as CEO in 2016 and started the effort to build the chat platform.
This is the culmination of Minister Ahsan Iqbal's vision who not only initiated and championed but also guided the process for over a year. These Centers will support nationally relevant research in the cutting-edge and emerging areas of science and technology where a little bit of investment by countries like Pakistan can provide us with a credible capability and a foothold in the global race towards prosperity.
NCAI would be headquartered at NUST but will have labs across the country working on a range of AI applications in security, factory automation and motion planning, medical diagnostics, brain machine interface, agriculture, and the like. It was a pleasure working with people involved, Drs. Arshad Ali, Yasar Ayaz Muhammad Khurram Gul Muhammad Khan and others across the country.
Not a single brick of infrastructure! Pure investment in Human Capital, Collaborative Networks, and Equipment for Labs. It took a bit of time to do this. But now that the model is set, we can quickly move on other Centers too. If we can do this right - and the next 3 years will tell - we could have set a unique model of merit based competitive research for rest of the Universities to follow.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154968691107032&set=a.491071792031.268399.569127031&type=3&theater
https://www.brecorder.com/2018/02/20/400051/ideas-meet-investments-momentum-pakistan-2018-kicks-off-in-karachi/
Startups, entrepreneurs, tech giants, social media stars, musicians; Momentum’18, one of Pakistan’s biggest tech conference, had it all covered under one roof.
Pakistan’s most awaited tech conference, Momentum Pakistan 2018 initiated yesterday, February 19 and will also continue today, February 20. The annual event attracted numerous startups, entrepreneurs, incubators, and national and international investors. The conference also hosted number of global companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and many others, of which’s delegates along with setting up their stalls, gave inspirational speeches too.
“I think this is a great platform where tech startups, investors, and IT vendors can meet and get support. My aim is to help these startups grow in Pakistan and abroad by giving them a platform,” expressed Chrystele Dumont from Microsoft.
The conference was a home for 250+ startups. Ranging from e-commerce and marketing based, to incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into everyday products and turning them into smart technology, the conference contained all.
Ignite, Qubolt, Fori Mazdoori, Botsify etc. were among the many names promoting their various products such as chat bots, holograms, robots, smart courier services and more.
The conference proved to be a great platform for women too who showcased their products. Developing smart technology such as ‘Rough Road Detection’, brain-driven ‘Intellectual Wheel Chair’, ‘Vision Detector’ for visually impaired, and ‘iSecure’ smart watches for eradicating child abduction etc. proved that women are no less than men.
“It’s time for us women to have a ripple effect and be positive,” expressed Gia Farooqui, CEO of Roshni Rides.
The Pakistani Indian, Asha Jadeja from Dot Edu Ventures also said, “Pakistan has the most exciting ecosystem that is growing. Technology is at its beginning phase here and it is developing more.”
Moreover, the conference also consisted of amazing speakers and panels from startups and from renowned firms all across the world. Asha Jadeja from Dot Edu Ventures, CEO of Foodpanda, Telenor, Careem etc., USAID representatives, Lashley Pulcifer from Hashoo Groups, Chrystele Dumont from Microsoft, were a few of the esteemed speakers that spoke on different topics regarding investments, women empowerment, Pakistani entrepreneurial ecosystem, tech startups and much more.
“Events like these are very important, they bring together everyone to inspire,” said Lashley Pulcifer, Chief Marketing Officer of Hashoo Group.
Lastly, the day was not all about speeches and promotional stalls. The event’s first day ended with a standup comedy by the popular social media star Junaid Akram where he left the audience laughing. It was followed by a concert from the ‘Call’ that marked a perfect ending to the first day of Momentum Pakistan 2018.
Talking about the event, Junaid Akram said, “This is a platform to bring startups together. Things like these are not highlighted in Pakistan, and events like these bring everyone under one roof, bridging investors and creators.”
Sarmayacar, a Netherlands-based early stage seed fund, announced on Friday the close of Sarmayacar Ventures, a $30 million venture capital fund geared towards supporting Pakistani startups.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Rabeel Warraich and international partner Dr Bernhard Klemen will lead the fund's investment of $100,000-$2m into companies focused on the technology and technology-enabled sectors, a press release issued by the company said.
Warraich explained that the objective of Sarmayacar Ventures is to "invest in the future of Pakistan".
"We are excited about the emerging opportunities in the country, particularly in the venture space, underpinned by attractive demographics and a strong digitisation push across many segments of the economy," said Warraich.
He added that the company looks to combine its expertise with the "financial firepower" of the fund to "back the most promising entrepreneurs building the next iconic Pakistani companies."
The CEO expressed hope that more investors, both local and international, follow "these small initial steps" and direct more risk capital towards the budding entrepreneurial ecosystem of Pakistan.
International partner Dr Klemen described Pakistan as "one of the last remaining untapped markets of an attractive scale".
"The stage of development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Pakistan allows us to build bridges and bring learning and expertise from international ecosystems."
Sarmayacar aims to provide value-added capital to recipients by giving them access to a diverse and experienced base of investors and international domain experts led by former Electronic Arts board member Jan Bolz, Dr Klemen said, in order to support local talent in company building and mitigate the scarcity of "smart capital" in Pakistan.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-24/uber-is-said-to-seal-3-1-billion-deal-to-buy-careem-this-week
Uber Technologies Inc. is set to announce a $3.1 billion cash-and-share deal to acquire its Dubai-based rival Careem Networks FZ as early as this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The U.S. ride-hailing giant will pay $1.4 billion in cash and $1.7 billion in convertible notes for Careem, the people said, asking not to identified because the talks are private. The notes will be convertible into Uber shares at a price equal to $55 per share, according to the term-sheet seen by Bloomberg.
Shareholders in Careem, whose backers include Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment firm and Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc., have been asked to agree to the terms of the transaction by Monday evening and a deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday, the people said.
Uber spokesman Matt Kallman declined to comment while a spokesman for Careem wasn’t immediately able to comment.
Read more: Uber Is Said to Pick New York Stock Exchange for 2019 Mega IPO
Uber’s acquisition of Careem would come ahead of its imminent initial public offering, which could be one of the New York Stock Exchange’s biggest-ever listings. Uber is expected to publicly file for an IPO in April, kicking off a listing that could value the company at as much as $120 billion, people familiar with the plans have said previously.
Mideast Startup
Careem was valued at about $1 billion in a 2016 funding round, making it one of the most valuable technology startups in the Middle East. The company has over a million drivers and operates in more than 90 cities in 15 countries, according to its website.
For Uber, a deal would signal its commitment to the Middle East, where one of its biggest investors -- a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund -- is based.
The acquisition would also be a departure in strategy for Uber, which has used such deals to offload costly overseas operations in exchange for stakes in competitors in the past.
Almost 300 employees of Careem will become millionaires after Uber acquired the Middle Eastern ride-sharing company. 200 of these employees will become Dirham millionaires, whereas almost 75 will become dollar millionaires for their shares reports The National.
All the employees of Careem had stock options and their company shares will be bought as part of the Uber acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion. This transaction will be completed by the first quarter of 2020 and will be divided into $1.4 billion to be paid in cash and $1.7 billion in convertible notes into Uber stock. Both ride-hailing companies will operate their respective regional services and independent brands. Both companies’ apps will also continue to operate under separate brands
The 4000 Careem employees who had stock options included its pool of executives, developers, and engineers working across all locations of the ride-hailing companies for operations and R&D. The acquisition of the entire company means that these shares will be acquired by Uber as well as creating millionaires.
Some of the Careem executives other than Mudassir Sheikha, Magnus Olsson, and Abdulla Elyas whose net worth will skyrocket after this transaction are likely to include:
Ankur Shah, Chief Finance and Strategy Officer
Hadeer Shalaby, Regional Director of Careem Bus
Junaid Iqbal, Managing Director for Pakistan
Ibrahim Manna, Managing Director for Emerging Markets
Bassel Al Nahlaoui, Managing Director for Gulf
The employees who will create wealth are not only the executives and operational team who have been associated with the company since its early days but also those who left after serving for a time period and earned company stock. Startup founders whose companies were acquired by Careem will also gain considerable wealth with this acquisition. However, Careem captains are not part of the transaction.
Airlift, a Pakistan-based eleven-month-old decentralized mass transit startup, has secured $12M in Series A financing, it announced in a statement today.
The round is led by First Round Capital, a leading US venture capital firm with notable investments in Uber, Square, Roblox, Looker, and Notion. The round which is the largest Series A ever raised by a Pakistani startup also marks one of the largest financings in South Asia this year and the first time that a US-based VC has led a round in Pakistan. The round was also joined by Fatima Gobi Ventures, a joint venture between one of Pakistan’s leading conglomerates Fatima Group and Gobi Partners, and Indus Valley Capital.
Founded by Usman Gul, Ahmed Ayub, Awaab Khaakwany, Meher Farrukh, Muhammad Owais, and Zohaib Ali earlier this year, Airlift enables users to book rides on premium quality (air-conditioned) buses (and vans) that have fixed routes, stops and times, in Lahore and Karachi.
The users after signing up and logging in, can reserve their seats by selecting their pick up and drop off locations or browsing the routes. Airlift’s mobile app that’s available for both Android and iOS allows users to track the buses in real-time and make payments as well using their credit or debit cards (the users have the option to pay by cash too when they board the bus).
“Airlift is spearheading the third wave of ride-sharing, in which higher capacity vehicles are playing an increasing role in enabling urban commute. With this financing, Airlift is looking to invest in technology and operations to scale its vision for a decentralized mass transit system, initially focusing on the developing world,” the startup
“In the future, mass transit systems will be dynamic in nature, catering and adapting to the changing needs of the urban population. Our vision for a decentralized mass transit system is a new concept, one that will fundamentally redefine how people commute in urban centers,” says Usman Gul, Airlift’s co-founder and CEO.
Prior to moving to Pakistan, Gul previously worked at DoorDash, the largest food delivery platform in the US. Tony Xu, Founder/CEO at DoorDash, which was valued at $12.6 billion in the last round, was among the first few angel investors to support Airlift. In August, just five months after launching operations, Airlift closed seed financing of $2.2M with Indus Valley Capital and the Fatima Gobi Ventures co-leading the round. In October, only two months later, the Company has secured Series A financing, increasing its total capital to $14.1M and setting a new precedent for startups based in Asia.
https://www.afr.com/companies/lunch-with-the-afr-zia-chishti-founder-afiniti-20180515-h103zd
"We're on our third billion-dollar company right now. The first was Align Technology, which today is trading over $US20 billion, and then I founded a private equity shop called TRG, which is arguably over a billion now, and then the third is Afiniti, the company that you've probably heard of most recently, with Wyatt."
He says Afiniti has just raised $US20 million in Australia as part of a $US70 million funding round to finance expansion.
Having done my homework, I ask why he was ejected from the management and board of the first company he started, Align Technology, which made teeth straighteners for adults.
"If you rewind the timeline in 9/11/2001, a bunch of loonies struck the World Trade Centre, and there was a view that Osama Bin Laden was the originator of these loonies," he says.
"Osama Bin Laden at the time was in Afghanistan, and Afghanistan was hard to distinguish from Pakistan in the minds of US equity investors. Our share price went down 90 per cent in two days. We had, at the time out of 1000 employees, 750 in Pakistan and the equity markets perceived our operations to be at risk.
"That triggered a very tense relationship with my board because their view was just get out of the country, why would you stay there? My view was a little more long term, which was we owe it to the employees and just because the equity markets are making a poor short-term decision, doesn't mean that we should.
"We had a different set of views as directors and in one of those cases where both sides were right, the dialogue became a little bit bitter. The way we concluded it was that I bought out the entire operations in Pakistan, all 700 plus people, who actually had nothing to do."
Chishti bought a call centre company in the US called Alert Communications for $US2 million and shifted its operations to Pakistan.
"The profitability went from minus $US1.5 million to $US3 million in six months. On the back of a $US2 million investment that was a darned good return."
This marked the beginnings of Afiniti with its combination of labour arbitrage between developing and developed countries and artificial intelligence to make call centres more efficient.
Bi-national
I decide to delve into the connection with Pakistan.
"My father was American with German descent," he says. "His forefathers arrived in the Americas in the early 1800s. They were a Pennsylvanian Dutch family. I was born in Bar Harbor, Maine, to an American father and a Pakistani mother who at the time was getting her PhD at Cornell. My father at the time was getting his PhD in philosophy and she in education.
"My father died when I was two years old and my mother moved back to Pakistan where she raised me until I returned from college in 1988. So, I've kind of grown up bi-national, if you will, between the United States and Pakistan. I have an affiliation with both."
Chishti was born Wilson Lear but his mother changed his name when they moved to Lahore so he wouldn't stand out.
He is clearly proud of his company's contribution to the Pakistan economy: companies in the TRG portfolio employ 7000 people.
"Today, across the TRG portfolio, we are the largest technology services sector investor, largest employer, largest exporter," he says.
Chishti hates what he sees as widespread misrepresentation of Pakistan as a renegade state rife with terrorism and violence.
"The Economist ran a very unfortunate article many years ago calling Pakistan the most dangerous country in the world," he says.
"It's laughable. It's completely false. If you look at the actual rate of violent crime in Karachi, which is the most violent city in Pakistan, the homicide rate per 100,000 is below Chicago, to give you a loose order of approximation. Lahore is comparable to Seattle for example."
https://www.afr.com/companies/lunch-with-the-afr-zia-chishti-founder-afiniti-20180515-h103zd
Chishti admits there is a porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan along the so-called Durand line but once you get 60kms inland it's a different story.
"Then from that point forward you have to look at the actual incidents of violence and the actual incidents of terrorism in the broader country and I believe it's essentially close to zero when you divide it by the broader population," he says.
By now the nearby table of 20 people have become a little raucous but our food has arrived.
I push him on the fact that Osama Bin Laden was living within walking distance of a military barracks when he was killed by the Americans.
"The popular description of Osama Bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, which is the town you were thinking of, is it could only reflect one of two things, that either the Pakistani government was somehow complicit in maintaining him in the country or they were incompetent in not being able to determine that he was in the country," he says.
"And so which one was it? Are you guys stupid or are you guys evil? My typical rejoinder to that is it's a false choice. Imagine for a moment that you looked at the FBI's most-wanted list and you find the guy at the top of the list five miles outside of Washington DC. Would you say that the US government was hiding him outside of Washington DC or that the FBI was incompetent?
"You'd conclude neither, you'd just say that an intelligent person who has reasonable resources, who wants to hide, is hard to find.
"If they found him outside of Washington DC, I don't think it would have implied that the US government was harbouring him or that the FBI was incompetent."
'America is diminished'
On the subject of US President Donald Trump, Chishti says Trump is 20 per cent good and 80 per cent bad. He says the good part is that Trump is an entrepreneur who is business friendly and trying to drive positive change in the American economy.
"The 80 per cent bad bit is the bigotry, the racially charged views, the overbearing stance on other countries around the world, including threats to bomb them or threats of economic sanctions," he says.
"That's the stuff that gets America into trouble and it tears at the fabric of society when we encourage racial division. It sets us back 30, 50, 100 years in our efforts to establish harmony and build a society that really has dropped perceptions based on colour or background or religion, from its analysis of individuals that he comes into contact with.
"In terms of geopolitical stature, I think America is diminished when we make bombastic statements that are not supported in fact and in which we caricature others to an unfair degree."
Trump, he says, is a logical product of the US electorate.
"I may be off by a few percentage points but my recollection is that 56 per cent of Americans believe that God created the universe less than 10,000 years ago," he says. "When you start from that position of bias, many geopolitical views become hard to swallow."
Sunny growth rates
It is impossible to avoid discussing the upcoming elections in Pakistan, especially when I learn he is a close friend of Imran Khan, the former international cricketer and Pakistani politician who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party or the PTI.
"I was one of the early financiers of Imran Khan's election campaign two iterations ago," Chishti says.
"Imran stands as being around accountability, transparency in government, and focus on reforming the judicial system and reforming the electoral system. To the extent that he has moved in that direction heavily, he has actually resulted in some significant positive change in the country.
https://tcrn.ch/2TEwRR0 via @techcrunch
https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1412922307438268416?s=20
Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, has been slow to adapt to the internet economy. Unlike other emerging economies such as China, India and Indonesia, which have embraced digitization and technology, Pakistan has trailed the region in the adoption of technology and startup formation.
Despite this, investors have dreamed for years of the huge opportunities in unlocking Pakistan’s potential as a digital economy. As a country of 220 million people, almost two-thirds of whom are under the age of 30, Pakistan draws natural comparisons to Indonesia — which has rapidly emerged as one of the most vibrant technology ecosystems outside the U.S. and China.
After years of lagging behind, over the course of the past 18 months, Pakistan’s technology ecosystem has come to life in unprecedented fashion. In 2021, Pakistani startups are on track to raise more money than the previous five years combined. Even more excitingly, a large portion of this capital is coming from international investors from across Asia, the Middle East and even famed investors from Silicon Valley.
The rapid emergence of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem on the international stage has been no accident — it’s the result of a confluence of changing facts on the ground and shifting dynamics in the startup and investing world as a result of the pandemic.
The sudden emergence of Pakistan’s tech ecosystem on the international stage has been driven by three major factors: an improving security situation, quickly growing mobile connectivity, and critical legal changes and deregulation.
As a frontline state and coalition partner in the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan saw fatalities from terrorist violence soar from 295 in 2001 to a peak of over 11,000 in 2009. This climate of instability and violence scared away international business and investors from Pakistan for much of the first two decades of the 21st century.
Muhammad Faisal Kaleem
https://dailytimes.com.pk/1031680/hec-grants-525000-to-15-startup-businesses-to-boost-entrepreneurship/
The Higher Education Commis-sion (HEC) has granted $525,000 to fifteen start-ups under the Innovator Seed Fund (ISF) program with the purpose to enhance the entrepreneurship, Daily Times has learnt.
As per available information 15 start-ups have won grants of up to $35,000 each in the Pitching competition. Initially, as many as 26 entrepreneurial teams shortlisted out of 186 applicants who have participated in the competition.
Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed applauded the talent and potential of university students, graduates and researchers with regard to presenting solutions to local challenges.
He, however, underlined that Pakistan definitely faces problems, yet it is certain that problems bring opportunities with them, adding that various achievements of Pakistani academia and industry in the spheres of technology and innovation, he stressed that the young generation was blessed with the capabilities to sort out solutions to the challenges facing the country.
While recalling the start-up program, Dr Ahmed highlighted that Pakistan’s start-ups saw a record-breaking year of fund-raising in 2021 with over $350 million in funding. He noted that with collective and persistent efforts, this fledgling ecosystem can flourish further and safeguard Pakistani entrepreneurs through regulatory, networking, and funding opportunities.
During the pitching ceremony earlier, Dr. Shaista Sohail said Pakistan currently has the largest number of young people ever in its history, which makes it one of the youngest countries in the world. “This huge generation of young people can be the biggest asset of the country, if we are able to reap its potential by empowering and uplifting them.” She stressed the need for providing the youth the right kind of education and skills as well as the opportunities to fulfil their roles as responsible, productive citizens, and drivers of economic growth.
She noted that in many countries, startups and entrepreneurship play a very important role in job creation. She further observed that Pakistan’s startup ecosystem is still in its embryonic stage compared to other nations of the world. “There is a dire need to propel our efforts towards promotion of technology and innovation-based Startups in the country and to boost the overall Startup ecosystem,” she emphasised.
The grant winning start-ups included ezGeyser, mimAR Studios, Funkshan Tech Pvt. Ltd., and truID Technologies Pvt. Ltd. from National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST); Savvy Engineers Pvt. Ltd. and Arm Rehab Technologies from International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI); Avero Life Sciences from Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar; Wonder Women from University of the Punjab; Orko Pvt. Ltd., Boltay Huroof, and Poter Pakistan from NED University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Karachi; VisionRD and Oxbridge Innovative Solutions Pvt. Ltd. from Bahria University Islamabad; 110 Innovate from IBA-Sukkur; and Shahruh Technologies Pvt. Ltd. from UET, Lahore.
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40304707
The government has announced the establishment of ten new Software Technology Parks across the country by next year, according to Radio Pakistan.
This was stated during a briefing by the Ministry of Information Technology to a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad.
The meeting was informed that 100 new e-employment centers will also be set up in the country by next year.
The project of Islamabad IT Park will be completed next year with the cooperation of South Korea. It will provide startups, incubation centers, banks, restaurants, and other facilities.
The meeting was informed that South Korea is also collaborating in establishing an information technology park project near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi which will be completed by 2027.
So far, 43 software technology parks have been established in 29 cities of the country.
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Tech parks for growth
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1177295-tech-parks-for-growth
In today’s fast-paced global economy, technology parks play a crucial role in fostering industrial development by providing an ecosystem conducive to innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship.
These designated areas are often referred to as research and technology parks or science parks. They can serve as catalysts for economic growth, driving technological advancements, attracting investment, and nurturing talent. By bringing together academia, industry, and government, these parks facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange, leading to breakthrough discoveries and technological advancements.
They are often located within or near universities so that they have ready access to highly trained workers in various fields. In Pakistan, I was involved in establishing a technology park in the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad as well as setting up several software technology parks in early 2001 in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar. More recently, an excellent technology park was established under my supervision within the Pak-Austria Fachhochschule (University of Applied Science and Engineering) in Haripur, Hazara.
Technology parks play a crucial role in enhancing the competitiveness of industries by providing access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, specialized facilities, and cutting-edge equipment. Companies located within technology parks benefit from shared resources such as research laboratories, testing facilities, and prototyping centres, enabling them to accelerate the development and commercialization of new products.
Moreover, the clustering effect of technology parks encourages the formation of industry clusters, where companies operating in related sectors can collaborate, share best practices, and access a pool of skilled talent.