Pakistan to launch first digital bank in one of five biggest deals in Middle East 

ISLAMABAD: TAG Innovation Pvt. is set to become Pakistan’s first digital bank when it starts operations this month in the world’s fifth most populous nation where 70 percent of adults don’t have a bank account, Bloomberg reported.
The Islamabad-based fintech startup will launch with a limited number of customers and start commercial operations in two to three months, Chief Executive Officer Talal Gondal said in an interview to Bloomberg on Thursday.
“The company has raised about $5.5 million in pre-seed funding, making it one of five biggest deals in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan region, according to data from Crunchbase,” the report said. “The funding round was led by Quiet Capital Management, Liberty City Ventures and Fatima Gobi Ventures. TAG also received strategic angel investments from general partners of Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures LLC, Canaan Partners and Mercury’s Immad Akhund.”
TAG joins other digital payment startups in raising funds as digital banks take off in emerging markets where millions lack access to banking services. Razorpay, an Indian startup that facilitates digital payments, said in April it was raising $160 million, while Egyptian digital banking app Telda raised $5 million last month.
Pakistan has the third largest unbanked adult population globally with about 100 million adults without a bank account, according to the World Bank. About 70 percent of the population doesn’t have a bank account, Raza Jafri, head of equities at Intermarket Securities Ltd., told Bloomberg.