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Pakistan's Airlift raises $12m Series A

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Pakistan’s Airlift, a bus-hailing app, has raised a $12 million Series A round led by US-based First Round Capital. It is being called the largest ever Series A in Pakistan.

First Round was the first institutional investor in ride-hailing category leader Uber, which also participated in the round. The investment is said to mark the first time a US venture capital firm has led an investment in Pakistan.

It comes five months after launching operations with $2.2 million in seed funding from locally based Indus Valley Capital and Fatima Gobi Ventures, a joint venture between Pakistani conglomerate Fatima Group and China's Gobi Partners. Gobi made its first investment in Pakistan last year with flight-booking app Sastaticket.

Airlift allows users to select the most convenient pick-up and drop-off points on a travel-course operated by bus owners. The company claims that passengers are able to shorten their commute time to as short as it would be if they had their own car. Operations currently cover Pakistan; Lahore and Karachi.

"In the future, mass transit systems will be dynamic in nature, catering and adapting to the changing needs of the urban population," Usman Gul, Airlift's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. "Our vision for a decentralized mass transit system is a new concept, one that will fundamentally redefine how people commute in urban centers."

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