ZoodPay, the digital lending platform for e-commerce in the Middle East and Central Asia, has entered Pakistan by fully “acquiring Karachi headquartered Tez Financial Services (Tez).”
Backed by investors including Planet N, Flourish Ventures and Accion, Tez reportedly became “the first Fintech in Pakistan to be granted a Non-Bank Financial Company (NBFC) license in 2018 and ever since has carved out a specialized niche in the consumer lending space providing nano-loans to the unbanked and underbanked masses across 160+ cities in Pakistan.”
Via this acquisition, ZoodPay is positioning itself “as a key new player in digital lending and fintech industry in Pakistan.”
Commenting on the expansion, Michael Khoi, CEO of ZoodPay said:
“Pakistan is a market brimming with potential given the number of people seeking access to credit facilities. We’re confident that by combining ZoodPay’s unique ecosystem and experience operating in frontier markets with Tez’s local know-how, strong team and ecosystem partnerships, we’ll be able to positively impact the life of Pakistani people and empower them by giving them access to easy, affordable and reliable digital financial services”
In the absence of credit histories and credible data, conventional players “have been unable to assess risk, deterring their interest in serving the masses – resultantly less than 5% individuals in Pakistan have access to formal credit.”
ZoodPay aims to address this problem “by leveraging its holistic B2B2C digital-lending ecosystem.”
Sharing his views on this transaction, Nadeem Hussain, Chairman of Tez said:
“The Pakistani startup ecosystem has hit its inflection point. In addition to sizable fundraises, acquisitions of local players by international players are starting to take place. This further validates the global value Pakistani startups are creating. Planet N was one of the first in the market to invest in startups. We are now seeing the first-mover advantage.”
Fintech adoption in Pakistan is on the rise with many new prominent investors entering the nation’s fast-growing markets.
As covered recently, YAP, a Fintech streamlining the virtual banking experience in the MENA and South Asia region, has announced that it has been granted an In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the State Bank of Pakistan for an Electronic Money Institute (EMI) License.
The approval provides “a tremendous opportunity for YAP to provide dynamic financial service tools for consumers.”
After launching its digital banking platform in the UAE, YAP has “identified Pakistan’s rapidly growing fintech landscape as the ideal market to expand its operations.”
