Pakistan is one of the countries with the fastest growing middle-class population in the world, with 4G subscribers increasing by 720% in the past five years.
In January 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the country registered 100 million Internet connections, but a large part of the population is still unconnected, and still use pencil and paper to track their transactions startup.CreditBook is trying to ensure that these people will not fall behind in this digital trend.
The Karachi-based company announced today that it has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from international and local investors. Investors include BitRate Venture Capital in Pakistan, VentureSouq in the UAE, Better Tomorrow Ventures in the United States, Ratio Ventures, Quiet Capital, Toy Ventures and i2i Ventures.
The founders of Indonesian digital accountants BukuWarung, Chinmay Chauhan and Abhinay Peddisetty, as well as Musha Ventures and Colombian delivery app Rappi also participated in this round of financing. This is also Better Tomorrow and Ratio’s first investment in Pakistan.
Founded by Hasib Malik, Iman Jamall and Hisham Adamjee, CreditBook aims to help micro-entrepreneurs digitize and track all their transactions. Its main function is digital ledger and accounts receivable and accounts payable tracking, similar to the services provided by India’s KhataBook and OkCredit.
CreditBook hopes to use the new funds to expand its users and product categories. According to the company, its registered user base has grown five-fold in the past six months, reaching 500,000.
“Before the launch in June 2020, we planned to use a combination of digital marketing and offline acquisitions. However, due to blockade restrictions, we adopted a purely digital strategy. We were surprised to see that there were more than Thousands of users log on to the platform and the total expenditure is less than $1,000,” Malik told AsiaTech.
Before obtaining this funding, the company received a small amount of pre-seed funding from individuals in Pakistan’s financial and retail sectors.
In addition to CreditBook, Pakistan has several other digital accounting companies, including Y Combinator graduate Udhaar.
In fact, the people of the country can also use Indian products such as KhataBook; however, CreditBook said its application supports six local languages, making it the most comprehensive application in the field. The startup currently has 15 employees, most of whom work in the field of technology and marketing. , Despite being the second largest entrant to the market, Malik recalled.
He added that although the team learned from similar apps in India and Indonesia, CreditBook pointed out that the product fits the market, making it relevant to the Pakistani environment.
“As we focus on growth and products through in-depth research and smart design decisions, our focus will always remain lean.”
Malik said that CreditBook has not yet monetized its products because the startup wants to focus on expanding its user base. At the same time, ensure that the trust of customers will not be compromised.