Pakistan's i2i launches $15m venture fund
Invest2Innovate, an accelerator program for technology start-ups in emerging markets, has launched a $15 million venture capital fund focused on Pakistan.
The fund, i2i Ventures, will invest in seed rounds for start-ups graduating from Invest2Innovate’s Pakistani program as well as in the broader technology ecosystem. It will also invest up to $1 million in growth-stage companies. LPs in the vehicle include the Dutch Good Growth Fund, along with high net worth individuals in the US, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
For what i2i is calling its “beta phase,” the firm’s co-founders Misbah Naqvi and Kalsoom Lakhani (pictured left and center, with investment manager Asad Jafri, right) expect to make about five deals in the next 18 months. I2i’s first investment is a seed round of undisclosed size for online home services marketplace Mauqa Online, which graduated from the accelerator two years ago.
Invest2Innovate opened its first accelerator program in Pakistan in 2011 and has since expanded to Bangladesh, Nepal, and Cambodia. It claims to be Pakistan’s first female-founded VC fund with backing from institutional investors, and is planning a gender-focused approach to investing, though its portfolio will not be limited to companies led by women.
“In Pakistan, vulture capital versus venture capital – i.e., investors who offer onerous terms to a start-up founder – is sadly the norm,” Lakhani said in a blog post. “As someone who has worked with startups for nearly a decade, there are many reasons a company can and does fail — bad investors should not be one of them.”
Investor interest in Pakistan is growing despite ongoing security issues and tensions with India, with the country representing almost half of all PE investment in South Asia ex-India for 2007-2017. I2i’s new fund joins Pakistan-focused vehicles from regional players such as Gobi Partners, as well as homegrown GP Lakson Investments and a government-backed fund that has gained support from US-based 1839 Ventures.
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