Karandaaz signs four grant agreements with the four winners of the FinTech Disrupt Challenge 2017.

Karandaaz is Pakistan’s best and leading technology and inclusion platform that aims to find out the talented, amazing and distinctive startup ideas across the Pakistan that can help initiate a positive change in the society.

The event of signing the grant agreements was held at Islamabad where the CEO of Karandaaz Pakistan, Mr. Ali Sarfaraz signed the agreements with the winners of FDC 2017.

These included the CreditFix.  It is the winner of FDC  2017 and was founded by Owais Zaidi. Karandaz decided to grant the startup with the amount of USD $100,000.

The runner ups who include Agri-Gate by Saad Tamman, UniKrew Solution by Naveed Tejani, Syed Taha Ali, and Muhammad Naveed Shareef, and Invoice Wakalah by Muhammad Waseem Sheikh were also granted  but for them it was  USD $20,000 each.

Karandaaz had invited people from all across Pakistan to take part in FDC 2017 from fields like financial services, payments, e-commerce, interoperability, and early stage ideas related to mWallet use cases, education of financial services through technology, customer engagement/experience, micro credit, and digital savings.

Also banks, government regulators, incubators, and complimentary actors from the FinTech industry were present at the event  to witness the win and ideas of the shortlisted participants. The competition grew tough as the participants put forth the ideas in front of the judges.

The CEO of Karandaaz Mr. Ali was of the view,

“We are confident that the grants we have released today will help these promising start-ups go to market and change Pakistan’s financial services landscape for the better.

The FinTech Disrupt Challenge is a remarkable platform through which we give emerging and aspiring fin-tech players of Pakistan an opportunity to materialize their passion of promoting financial inclusion in the country. I wish CreditFix, Invoice Wakalah, UniKrew, and ‘Agrigate’ the very best of luck for the future.”

Karandaaz Pakistan is trying to improve the life style of people and solving many financial problems of Pakistan. Thus to fulfill the aim FDC was created.

The post Karandaaz Pakistan signs grant agreements with FinTech Disrupt Challenge 2017 winners appeared first on Techlist.

Growth Capital Investment in Techlogix

Non profit financial firm Karandaaz Pakistan has signed an agreement with Techlogix to invest USD 1.5 million in the company with the vision to scale three new cloud-based verticals – Business Management Software for higher education institutions; Hospital Management Information Systems; and Mobility Information Management System for large scale sales, distribution and field forces. This growth capital investment is funded by United Kingdom Department for International Development (UKAid).

Nowadays Software as a Solution (SaaS) is approaching 30% of total application spend – the total cloud market cap is projected to grow to USD 180 billion by 2018 from less than USD 25 billion in 2008 at a compound annual growth rate of 22%.1

Techlogix will initially be focusing on scaling AlmusNet, a campus on cloud solution for higher education institutions. The need for higher education is increasing exponentially in the developing countries and with it, there is an growing need for effective automation in processes at universities and colleges.

This demand is currently met mostly by home-grown solutions that are not cost-effective, lack scalability and do not allow for integration across functions. AlmusNet is a complete solution for colleges and universities to manage their administrative, policy, enrollment, academic, financial and community portals in a cost effective mobile platform.

Mr. Ali Sarfraz, CEO at Karandaaz Pakistan said,

“We are extremely pleased to have signed our first growth capital investment deal with Techlogix after conducting a rigorous due diligence process, and are confident that this investment will provide good returns to Karandaaz. I would like to thank United Kingdom for International Development (UKAid) for their generous support and look forward to concluding three to four additional deals by 2018 end.”

Mr. Asad Azfar, Chief Investment Officer at Karandaaz Pakistan, at the signing ceremony said,

“We are excited at Karandaaz Capital to complete our first growth capital investment and begin a strategic partnership with Techlogix Pakistan and Techlogix International Limited. Techlogix is a leading Pakistan-based technology solutions provider with a global client base.”.

“Techlogix is delighted to work with Karandaaz in our exciting evolution from a pure IT services company to a portfolio of product investments,”

said Mr. Salman Akhtar, co-founder and CEO of Techlogix, at the occasion.

He further said, We look added than 100 resources to our team in 2016 and with Karandaaz’s financial commitment in 2017, we look forward to continuing this journey.

Karandaaz Pakistan, a not-for- profit company established in August 2014, promotes access to finance for small and mid-size businesses through a commercially directed investment platform, and financial inclusion for individuals by promoting technology enabled digital solutions.

Techlogix is an IT Services provider with over 20 years of experience in Enterprise IT projects. The company has a track record of innovation in product engineering with core expertise in large enterprise solutions.

The post Karandaaz Pakistan and Techlogix partner to scale cloud solution for higher education institutions appeared first on Techlist.

Karandaaz Pakistan and the three winners of Fintech Disrupt Challenge Pakistan signed grant agreements. The grant agreement of $100,000 with each Ricult Pakistan, Paysys Labs and PublishEX Solution was signed. That makes a total of US $300, 000. Karandaaz Pakistan is a great financial support for the growing companies.

The three companies were bit selected randomly but after a long process. In November last year during the Fintech challenge 61 applications were received only 28 were selected for challenge. The event was held at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship. Than the 10 finalists were shortlist, finally these three managed to achieve top three positions.

Ali Sarfraz the CEO of Karandaaz Pakistan said,

“This competition showcased an incredible display of talent from startups across the nation. 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 aspire to disrupt FinTech industry. We look forward to expediting that process and helping these startups gain traction in the Pakistan market,”

Rehan Akhtar the Director Digital Financial Services of Karandaaz Pakistan added,

“The initial mobilization amount will give the winners a kick-start to their projects. With this grant, we intend to provide them with capital inflow for the next one year so the startups remain focused on ope-rationalization of their products/services rather than worrying about lack of finance. We expect these Fin Techs to be sustainable in the long run and create an impact in the digital financial services industry.”

Ricult Pakistan:

Farmers are one of the major assets of Pakistan. Ricult wants to make it easier for farmers by a digitized method. This would help to reduce inefficiency in the farming system. It enables the farmers to register for free by phone. In Ricult the can order supplies and can get easy loans.

The Ricult gets a small amount of each money transaction. Ricult plans to integrate a mobile-wallet in their platform which will seamlessly disburse amounts to the farmer’s account.

Paysys Labs:

This is a technology startup. Karim Jindani believes, “Secure & friction-less identity verification is one of the major challenges in DFS space.”

It aims to introduce a biometric ID verification solution that will use a Smartphone camera. This will allow easy authentication anywhere.

PublishEX Solutions:

The startup wants to use the amount in building a platform named Direct Carrier Billing. It aims to provide secure yet fast way of money transfer.

Salim Karim and Yassir Pasha want to build a platform fir convenience of merchant. According to them this will be, “A payment channel which enables merchants to seamlessly monetize digital goods and services for their users on a global scale.”

About Karandaaz Pakistan

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 & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The post Karandaaz Pakistan Signs $300,000 Grant Agreements With Tech Startups appeared first on Techlist.