South Asia Investor Review

 Kleiner Perkins, a top Silicon Valley venture capital investment firm, is leading series A round of $17 million investment into Pakistani start-up Tajir. The startup operates an online marketplace for small store merchants in Pakistan. The announcement came via a tweet by Mamoon Hamid, a Pakistani-American Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins who led the investment. Last year, Tajir raised a $1.8 million seed round.  The company's revenue has increased by 10x since its seed round.  Here's what Hamid tweeted: "Made my first investment in Pakistan, my country of birth, and a place I called home from the ages of 10 to 13. Feels special. This also marks @kleinerperkins first investment in Pakistan. We are thrilled to announce our investment in @tajir_app_pk"  Tajir has been cofounded by two brothers, Babar and Ismail Khan. The company lets stores place orders for inventory through its app and allows customers to compare the prices of goods, purchase inventory and have ...

Pakistan saw its technology exports grow by double digits to  surge past $1 billion  mark in 2018. Nature magazine reported the country ranked first in the world in  research output growth  in year 2018. Pakistan mobile broadband subscriptions grew by 1-2 million a month to pass 60 million. Google's Singapore-based Asia business lead Lars Anthonisen wrote that "Pakistan is quickly becoming a  digital-first country ". Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its digital payments platform Alipay entered Pakistan market by acquiring Daraz.pk and Telenor EasyPaisa.  Dr. Ata ur Rahman Khan, former chairman of higher education commission, asserted in an op ed that "Pakistan churns out about 22,000 computer-science graduates each year". Pakistan set an ambitious goal for its first human space flight in 2022.  It was an exciting year for science and technology in the South Asian nation of over 200 million people. Pakistan Technology Exports: Pakistan's informa...

Alibaba Group (BABA.N) has bought the entire share capital of ecommerce platform Daraz, Rocket Internet said, according to  Reuters . American ecommerce giant Amazon is already in Pakistan via its investment in another ecommerce platform Clicky.pk. Daraz, founded in Pakistan in 2012, operates online marketplaces in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The unit will continue to operate under the same brand following the sale to Alibaba, Rocket said. Online sales in Pakistan's $152 billion retail market are doubling every year,  according to Adam Dawood of Yayvo online portal. He expects them to  pass $1 billion  in the current fiscal year (2017-18), two years earlier than the previous forecast. Media  reports  suggest global e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com could purchase substantial stake in Pakistan's  e-commerce  site  Clicky.pk. Amazon's Presence in Pakistan: Amazon already owns about 33% stake in Clicky.pk throug...