KARACHI: In a groundbreaking achievement for the Pakistani startup landscape, health-tech startup Sehat Kahani has become the first all-women led company from the South Asian nation to secure $2.7 million in Series A funding, the firm said in a statement on Thursday.
Amaanah Circle, a Singapore-based health-tech fund led by Dr. Razi Yousuf, spearheaded the funding, joined by key investors including Epic Angels, a female-only investor collective, Cross Fund, USAID Investment Promotion Activity (IPA), Augmentor, Impact Investment Exchange(IIX) and the Elahi group of companies.
Sehat Kahani is among a myriad of social enterprises — businesses seeking to build a better world — that are innovating to plug health care gaps in developing countries, a task given added urgency by the COVID-19 crisis.
“Sehat Kahani is an incredible health-tech story led by Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram and Dr. Iffat Zafar Aga. Amaanah Circle (Singapore) is proud to contribute to the subject matter expertise, and in upscaling regionally and globally to the overall vision of Sehat Kahani in the future of digital health and preventive health care,” Yousuf said in a statement.
Sehat Kahani’s technology ensures a “seamless virtual connection” between doctors and patients within 60 seconds, offering on-demand at-home or on-premise laboratory services and online medicine delivery. The platform caters to a diverse nationwide patient base, including B2B clients, B2C consumers, and underserved populations in rural areas.
Sehat Kahani extends its corporate application into a comprehensive OPD management solution, providing corporate employees and their families 24/7 hassle-free and cashless access to specialists, online medicine delivery, and efficient claims management.
“The holistic 360-degree well-being program for corporates emphasizes health promotion and preventative care. The Consumer Application, operational in over 310 cities and towns across Pakistan, integrates seamlessly into prominent banking and lifestyle platforms, ensuring affordable and accessible health care,” the statement added.
Founder Khurram said the funding infusion marked “a pivotal moment for Sehat Kahani.”
“It will enable us to develop advanced features, including decision support systems, precision medicine tools, and predictive AI models to help our patients live fully by knowing their disease better,” she said.
Co-founder Aga said the company had shown average year on year growth of 141 percent in the last three years, overcoming the myth that telemedicine was only beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have seen five times the cumulative growth in the number of consultations in the post covid era,” Aga said. “This gives us the confidence to expand operations to other countries and take Sehat Kahani global as our next move for expansion.”
In 2021, Khurram was announced as one of the five winners of the ‘WE Empower UN SDG Challenge,’ a first-of-its-kind global competition for women social entrepreneurs who are advancing UN Sustainable Development Goals and inspiring communities in their respective countries.
As COVID-19 strained Pakistan’s health system after 2020, the founders of Sehat Kahani decided to tap into tens of thousands of women doctors sitting at home, their talents squandered in a country where millions have no access to medical care.
Many families encourage their daughters to study medicine not for a career, but to bolster their marriage prospects. The phenomenon even has a name — “doctor-brides”.
Appalled by the waste of expertise, Khurram and Aga set up their telemedicine platform enabling female medics to provide e-consultations from their homes to patients in rural communities.
Sehat Kahani also liaised with the Pakistani federal government to provide free consultations to all patients during the first wave of COVID-19. They also installed apps in hospital intensive care units treating COVID patients, allowing junior doctors to get immediate advice from critical care experts based elsewhere.
Sehat Kahani becomes first all-women Pakistani company to raise $2.7 million Series A funding
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Sehat Kahani becomes first all-women Pakistani company to raise $2.7 million Series A funding
- Sehat Kahani’s technology ensures a “seamless virtual connection” between doctors and patients within 60 seconds
- The health-tech startup has shown a significant average year-on-year growth of 141% in the last three years
Pakistan farmers announce nationwide protest from May 10 amid wheat import crisis
- Farmers are demanding the government stop wheat imports that have flooded markets, leading to price slump
- Agriculture contributes about 24 percent of the GDP and accounts for half of the employed labor force in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani farmers on Sunday announced a nationwide protest over the wheat import crisis from May 10, a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised to address their grievances.
Farmers in Pakistan’s Punjab province, which produces most of the wheat crop, are demanding the government stop wheat imports that have flooded the market at a time when they expect bumper crop.
They say the import of wheat in the second half of 2023 and the first three months of this year has resulted in excess amounts of the commodity in the country, leading to reduced prices.
On Saturday, PM Sharif took notice of the matter and formed a committee under the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to address farmer grievances, Pakistani state media reported.
“On the 10th [of May], after the Friday prayers, we are initiating protest from Multan and this protest will be expanded to the whole of Pakistan,” Khalid Khokhar, who heads the Kissan Ittehad Pakistan, said at a press conference.
“Thousands of farmers will come, there will be hundreds of tractors, trailers. Animals, cattle and children and women will also be accompanied.”
Agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and constitutes its largest sector. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), agriculture contributes about 24 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and accounts for half of the employed labor force in the country.
However, the prices of wheat have dropped in Pakistan in recent weeks and are much below the government’s support price of Rs3,900 per 40-kilogram bag.
“We do not have any option other than this. The mafia made Rs100 billion, Pakistan’s $1 billion worth of foreign exchange was spent and the farmers incurred around Rs400 billion losses,” Khokhar said.
“They slaughtered 60 million farmers just for the sake of corruption.”
Pakistan’s Dr. Shahzad Baig makes it to TIME’s 100 world leaders in health
- Before arriving in Pakistan, Baig was a technical adviser to Nigeria’s polio eradication effort, which remained successful
- Pakistan, Afghanistan are only two countries in world where polio continues to threaten health and well-being of children
ISLAMABAD: US news magazine TIME has included Dr. Shahzad Baig, the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme’s national coordinator, to its list of 100 most influential people across the world in the field of health in 2024.
The list, titled ‘TIME100 HEALTH,’ this week honored individuals from across the world for their services for fresh discoveries, novel treatments, and global victories over disease.
Baig was recognized for his efforts for the eradication of poliovirus, which mainly affects children under the age of ten years by invading their nervous system, and can cause paralysis or even death.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio continues to threaten the health and well-being of children.
“On the front lines in the effort to stamp it [polio] out is Dr. Shahzad Baig, national coordinator of Pakistan’s polio-eradication program,” TIME wrote on its website.
“In 2019, polio disabled or killed 147 people in Pakistan; since Baig assumed the position, in 2021, case counts have plummeted, with only six children stricken in 2023.”
Before arriving in Pakistan, Baig was a technical adviser to Nigeria’s polio eradication effort, which succeeded spectacularly, according to the US magazine.
In 2020, the African country became the most recent one in the world to be declared polio-free.
“If Baig has his way, Pakistan will be the next,” it added.
Canada has ‘political compulsion’ to blame India for Sikh slaying — New Delhi
- Canadian police on Friday arrested three for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, saying they were investigating their links to Indian government
- The killing soured Ottawa-New Delhi diplomatic ties after PM Trudeau said there were ‘credible allegations’ linking Indian intelligence to crime
NEW DELHI: Canada’s investigation into alleged Indian involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist in Vancouver last year is a “political compulsion,” New Delhi’s foreign minister said after three Indian citizens were arrested over the killing.
Canadian police on Friday arrested the trio for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, saying they were investigating their links to the Indian government, “if any.”
The killing sent diplomatic relations between Ottawa and New Delhi into a tailspin last autumn after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to the crime.
India vehemently rejected the allegations as “absurd,” halting the processing of visas for a time and forcing Canada to significantly reduce its diplomatic presence in the country.
“It is their political compulsion in Canada to blame India,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted external affairs minister S. Jaishankar as saying on Saturday.
Thousands of people were killed in the 1980s during a separatist insurgency aimed at creating a Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, which was put down by security forces.
The movement has largely petered out within India, but in the Sikh diaspora — whose largest community is in Canada, with around 770,000 people — it retains support among a vocal minority.
New Delhi has sought to persuade Ottawa not to grant Sikh separatists visas or political legitimacy, Jaishankar said, since they are “causing problems for them (Canada), for us and also for our relationship.”
He added that Canada does not “share any evidence with us in certain cases, police agencies also do not cooperate with us.”
Nijjar immigrated to Canada in 1997 and acquired citizenship 18 years later. He was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
The three arrested Indian nationals, all in their twenties, were charged with first degree murder and conspiracy.
They were accused of being the shooter, driver and lookout in his killing last June.
The Canadian police said they were aware that “others may have played a role” in the murder.
In November, the US Justice Department charged an Indian citizen living in the Czech Republic with plotting a similar assassination attempt on another Sikh separatist leader on American soil.
A Washington Post investigation reported last week that Indian foreign intelligence officials were involved in the plot, a claim rejected by New Delhi.
PCB chief announces $100,000 reward for each player if Pakistan wins T20 World Cup
- Mohsin Naqvi made the announcement during his visit to Qaddafi Stadium, where the Babar Azam-led side has been practicing
- The Pakistan side is scheduled to travel to Ireland, England for T20 tours later this month, followed by the World Cup in June
ISLAMABAD: Mohsin Naqvi, chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has announced $100,000 reward for each player in case the national side wins the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup, the PCB said on Sunday.
Naqvi made the announcement during his visit to the Qaddafi Stadium in Lahore, where the Babar Azam-led side began the national camp on Saturday, according to the PCB.
He stayed there for two hours and held a detailed discussion with Pakistan players on the strategy of upcoming games.
“This reward is nothing compared to Pakistan’s victory,” Naqvi was quoted as saying.
“I hope you will raise the green flag. Play without any pressure and compete hard. God willing, victory will be yours.”
The Pakistan side is scheduled to travel to Ireland and England for T20 tours later this month.
The tours will help the side prepare for the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in the United States and the West Indies in June.
IMF says its mission will visit Pakistan this month to discuss new loan
- Pakistan last month completed a short-term $3 billion program, which helped stave off sovereign default
- But the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stressed the need for a fresh, longer-term program
KARACHI: An International Monetary Fund mission is expected to visit Pakistan this month to discuss a new program, the lender said on Sunday ahead of Islamabad beginning its annual budget-making process for the next financial year.
Pakistan last month completed a short-term $3 billion program, which helped stave off sovereign default, but the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stressed the need for a fresh, longer-term program.
“A mission is expected to visit Pakistan in May to discuss the FY25 budget, policies, and reforms under a potential new program for the welfare of all Pakistanis,” the IMF said in an emailed response to Reuters.
Pakistan’s financial year runs from July to June and its budget for fiscal year 2025, the first by Sharif’s new government, has to be presented before June 30.
The IMF did not specify the dates of the visit, nor the size or duration of the program.
“Accelerating reforms now is more important than the size of the program, which will be guided by the package of reform and balance of payments needs,” the IMF statement said.
Pakistan narrowly averted default last summer, and its $350 billion economy has stabilized after the completion of the last IMF program, with inflation coming down to around 17 percent in April from a record high 38 percent last May.
It is still dealing with a high fiscal shortfall and while it has controlled its external account deficit through import control mechanisms, it has come at the expense of stagnating growth, which is expected to be around 2 percent this year compared to negative growth last year.
Earlier, in an interview with Reuters, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the country hoped to agree the contours of a new IMF loan in May.
Pakistan is expected to seek at least $6 billion and request additional financing from the Fund under the Resilience and Sustainability Trust.
