The pattern is clear: as foreign equity retreated, domestic capital – bank-led, debt-flavoured, and increasingly homegrown – stepped into the gap. The ecosystem is becoming less dependent on the mood of investors in San Francisco and Dubai. None of this means Pakistan has fixed itself. The interviews behind this research surface a list of self-inflicted […]
How Venture Capital Learned to Survive Pakistan’s Fragile Economy
In 2021, money seemed to fall from the sky. Pakistani startups raised a record $347 million across 82 deals, with the grocery-delivery company Airlift alone pulling in an $85 million round – at the time the largest in the country’s history. The mood was euphoric. Incubators multiplied, co-working spaces filled up, and a generation of […]