One thing that nobody is going to disagree with is that 2020 has been quite a year. And though the consensus will be that the environment has changed dramatically and drastically, for others, 2020 would be the year in which opportunities are presented and reached out and grasped. Pakistani startups, which according to different reports, raised between $61 million and $66 million in disclosed and undisclosed funding during the year 2020, was one of the groups that had cause to rejoice last year.
The revealed funding sum of $61.7 million comes from the Islamabad-based Invest 2 Innovate (i2i) Ventures, a venture capital company that invests in start-ups in the early stages. The total raised by start-ups in 2020 was as high as $66.24 million, according to Data Darbaar, an up and coming website that offers insights into start-ups. The number is visibly higher than in 2019, when, according to i2i Ventures, startups raised a total of $47.5 million.
Compared to 32 in 2019, at least 41 revealed transactions were made in 2020, although only three women-led start-ups received capital for a meager $1.8 million in 2020. While the number is small, it is telling of the fact that in the first place, there are only very few startups that are founded by women. While start-ups operate in different sectors, the largest amount of funding was $23.7 million for transport and mobility. Bykea, which raised $13 million in Series B, and Airlift, which scored a $10 million extended Series A round, raised notable rounds.
