Indus Valley raises $17.5m for Pakistan VC fund
Pakistan-focused VC firm Indus Valley Capital has raised $17.5 million for its debut fund focused on early-stage start-ups. The initial target was $15 million.
LPs include partners at two large VC funds and Middle Eastern angel investors, Indus Valley confirmed via social media. Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit also invested, alongside various executives and operators from Linkedin, Facebook, Google, Stripe, Coinbase, Uber, Dropbox, Atlassian, and Oracle.
"It's awesome to see so many in Silicon Valley believe and invest in the Pakistani start-up ecosystem," Indus Valley said.
Indus Valley was founded in 2019 by Aatif Awan, a former Linkedin executive who led the company's product integration with Microsoft following its $26 billion acquisition in 2016. The firm operates across bases in San Francisco and Karachi. Its focus on tech professionals in the LP base is expected to facilitate portfolio networking.
The fund, which reached a first close of undisclosed size in February last year, will invest on a sector-agnostic basis as early at the seed stage. Although Pakistan is the primary geographic focus, there is capacity to address the Middle East and North Africa on an opportunistic basis. Portfolio companies include shoe brand Atoms, women's fitness platform AimFit, B2B e-commerce marketplace Bazaar, and bus-hailing app Airlift.
It is being touted as the largest closed fund focused on Pakistan. Sarmayacar Ventures, a Pakistan-focused investor set up by ex-GIC executive Rabeel Warraich, is expected to close a $30 million vehicle this year. Meanwhile, Fantima Gobi Ventures, a joint venture between local conglomerate Fatima Group and China's Gobi Partners launched a $20 million fund targeting the country. Fantima Gobi is also an investor in Airlift.
In 2017, Lakson Investments claimed to have been awarded the country's first venture capital license with the launch of a seed fund of unconfirmed size, while Ijara Capital Partners, the first local investor to receive approval for a private equity fund, raised $100 million for its Pakistan Emerging Markets Fund.
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