Karandaaz Pakistan Signs $300,000 Grant Agreements With Tech Firms

KARACHI, Feb 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 08th Feb, 2017 ) : Karandaaz Pakistan, a source of financing and support for Pakistan's innovative growing companies Wednesday signed grant agreements of $300,000 with Tech Startup companies.

The agreements worth $100,000 each were inked here with Ricult Pakistan, Paysys Labs and PublishEX Solutions, said a press release issued here. These Tech Startup companies are winners of the first-ever Fintech Disrupt Challenge in Pakistan.

Both the challenge and resultant grants were funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Out of a total 61 applications from across the country, 28 were invited at the Fintech Disrupt Challenge-2016 held in collaboration with LUMS Centre for Entrepreneurship in November last year.

Ten finalists were shortlisted by judges who included subject matter and investor experts from ArbiSoft, Acumen, Bank Al-Falah and board members of Karandaaz. Out of which these three companies emerged as the winners.

This competition showcased an incredible display of talent from startups across the nation. Chief Executive Officer, Karandaaz Pakistan, Ali Sarfraz said, "We have now completed the first step in the process with these awards.

The next and more vital piece of this challenge will be getting the deals completed, and setting up a soft landing for winning startups who aspired to disrupt FinTech industry.

" The Ricult company was focused towards changing the way farming has been done by bringing a more 'databased' approach and reducing inefficiencies in the system.

Pysys Labs is a technology startup in the domain of digital financial services with a key focus on research and development. Salim Karim and Yassir Pasha of PublishEX Solutions plan to use the grant amount to build their platform, Direct Carrier Billing (DCB), a payment channel which enables merchants to seamlessly monetize digital goods and services for their users on a global scale.

Their service aims to provide users with a simple, secure and fast way of making payments via available balance in their mobile sim without any requirement of a credit card or a bank account. Karandaaz Pakistan, a not-for-profit company registered under SECP in August 2014, promotes access to finance for small businesses through a commercially directed investment platform, and financial inclusion for individuals by employing technology enabled digital solutions.

The company has financial and institutional support from leading international development finance institutions, principally the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UKAid) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.