Pakistani Fintech Startup Neem Raises $2.5 Million in Seed Round

Neem, a Pakistan-based finance platform, has raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Hong Kong’s SparkLabs Fintech, with participation from Pakistan’s investment banking firm Arif Habib, Cordoba Logistics and Ventures, Taarah Ventures, My Asia VC, Concept Vines, Building Capital and other strategic angel investors.

Founded in 2019 by Nadeem Shaikh, Vladimira Briestenska, and Naeem Zamindar, Neem is a lending platform that provides tailored financial solutions to consumers and MSMEs across a wide range of sectors including agriculture, e-commerce, logistics, and healthcare. The startup is working on a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform which is slated to launch in December this year. The platform aims to onboard partners to embed wallets, payments and offer financial products such as insurance and savings to users.

“It’s time to evolve from financial inclusion to financial wellness to fully capture the shift in people’s financial needs,” Vladimira Briestenska, co-founder at Neem, tells StartupScene. “We simply have to move beyond providing just access to a bank account. This has been recognised also by global players like M-PESA. The paradigm shift toward financial wellness is now possible thanks to the emergence of new business and technology models."

The new funding will be used to grow the team and develop the BaaS platform. In the near future, Neem plans to expand to new markets to further support underbanked communities in developing countries.

Funding in Pakistan’s fintech sector has peaked in 2021, reaching $60 million across 20 deals, according to data platform Magnitt. The year 2022 has surpassed FY 2021, reaching $83 million to date. Some startups driving this growth include Dbank, which raised $17.6 million; OneLoad, which raised $11 million; and SadaPay, which raised $10.7 million.