Staff Reporter
CDC Group (CDC), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, has made an anchor investment in Techxila Fund I, a fund managed by local venture capital (VC) firm Fatima Gobi Ventures (FGV).
CDC’s commitment will help to boost Techxila Fund I’s investments in Pakistan-focused early stage startups.
Increasing interest from international investors such as global VC firms, bodes well for Pakistani startups.
In the first half of 2021 alone, Pakistani startups raised more funding from VCs than the previous five years combined.
Despite a global pandemic, foreign funds accounted for over 70 percent of Pakistan’s total VC funding in 2020 and 2021.
This rise in VC funding has helped fuel the country’s economic growth – the country has seen an increase in its middle-class over the last two decades, with estimated 84 million Pakistanis (42 percent of the population) considered middle-class in 2017.
FGV itself is a joint venture between Pakistan conglomerate Fatima Ventures and pan-Asian VC Gobi Partners.
Now the most active investor in Pakistan, FGV’s investees were involved in more than 40 percent of the country’s announced funding deals as of September 2021.
