Press Release (Aug 6, 2018): To support budding Pakistani startups on a larger scale, Telenor has widened the scope of its flagship ‘Velocity’ accelerator by partnering with incubation centers and other accelerators. Telenor Velocity is Pakistan’s first telco-led accelerator that helps promising startups overcome the barriers holding their business back and work closely to identify steps they need to take …

Uber, a US based ride hailing company, is in “preliminary talks” with Middle East based competitor Careem to strike a deal. Its too early to speculate but the reports by Bloomberg, tells the beginning of strategic talks between the two parties. In its discussions with Careem, Uber has said that it would need to own more than half of the combined company, if not buy Careem outright, …

Allied Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan, has partnered with AutoSoft Dynamics and Finja to implement a complete branchless banking solution. The solution will provide easy access to banking services, including instant opening of accounts anywhere, anytime with no requirement to visit a bank branch. Furthermore, this solution unleashes innovative digital financial services especially for the unbanked …

Islamabad, June 18, 2018: The country’s leading proponent of financial inclusion, Karandaaz Pakistan has launched this year’s call of its annual Women Entrepreneurship Challenge (WEC) aimed at women-led businesses across Pakistan. Karandaaz will provide customized business development support as well as invest up to PKR 20 million (per business) in women-led businesses that qualify for the program and successfully demonstrate …

Being at the forefront of fintech explosion in Pakistan, JazzCash has launched the Online Banking portal for masses to manage their banking needs. The launch shows importance and commitment towards making online or mobile banking experience easier and widespread.  According to Aniqa Afzal Sandhu – Chief Digital & Financial Services Officer at Jazz, said: JazzCash Online Banking Portal Existing JazzCash Mobile …

Easypaisa has partnered with Masterpass, a digital wallet by MasterCard, to enable QR code based payment using Easypaisa Mobile App. Now, Easypaisa Mobile Account customers will be able to make payments at merchants with Masterpass QR code through Easypaisa App. Masterpass has around 100,000 merchants operating in Pakistan that have been issued QR codes. In other words, these merchants are …

8th May 2018 – Rocket Internet announced today the acquisition of its Daraz Group platform by the Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba Group (“Alibaba”). The acquisition is 100% with an undisclosed amount. This is the second major acquisition, after 45% stake in Telenor Bank, of Alibaba Group in Pakistan. Founded in 2012, Daraz Group operates mainly in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar and …

After the success of APIthon Chapter I, Abacus Consulting is organizing the API Hackathon again but this time with the theme of “Collaborate to Innovate”. Last time APIthon attracted dozens of skilled professionals; this time also, the event has attracted skilled professionals associated with startups, tech companies, individual developers, and enterprises. They all will collaborate to innovate and bring alive the APIs in motion. …

Telenor Velocity is organizing Pakistan’s First IOT Hackathon in collaboration with Telenor’s IOT Team and Plan9. The hackathon will comprise of IOT startups competing with each other and pitching their products in front of top IOT experts of Pakistan! The participating startups will develop their solution in this 36 hours long hackathon and will be building innovative IOT solutions by combining hardware, software, and data science. Telenor Velocity will not left you stranded and will bring the best mentors, speakers and judges from within the Pakistani …

Karandaaz, a premier player for promoting financial inclusion and innovation in fintech space in Pakistan, is holding the 3rd round of its Fintech Disrupt Challenge (FDC) 2018. The Karandaaz FDC 2018 aims to harness the most innovative ideas from the financial technology space and transform them into scalable solutions. Last year winner, CreditFix, won the competition with their Digital Lending …

Careem has released a security update intended for its subscribers about a cyber attack on its servers that happened on 14th Jan 2018. Reportedly, customer personal data was compromised. According to the official release, stolen data of customer accounts include, Keeping transparency with its customers, the ride hailing service came public to announce the news instead of keeping it a secret – which …

Amazon needs no introduction and an entry of such player in Pakistan, though indirectly, is a sign that our e-commerce market is showing some positive signs. We are neighbors to worlds two biggest e-commerce markets, China standing at more than $1trillion and India at more than $30billion. It’s nothing strange saying that times are pushing these two to spill over …