ISLAMABAD: The International Financing Corporation (IFC) has invested $3 million in Pakistan’s first women-led venture capital fund, i2i Ventures, under its Startup Catalyst Programme that supports innovative early-stage startups, the global development institution said recently.
The IFC focuses on the private sector in developing countries by advancing economic development, creating jobs and improving the lives of people, according to its website. The fund aims to back founders by investing in pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
On the other hand, i2i Ventures is a startup accelerator and a venture capital firm based in Pakistan that focuses on supporting and investing in early-stage startups and entrepreneurs in the region.
The IFC said its catalyst program invests in incubators and accelerators supporting startups in underserved markets and i2i Ventures was extending extensive support for early-stage startups in Pakistan.
“The financing comprises up to $2 million from IFC’s account and up to $1 million from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), which supports women-owned and led firms and builds the capacity of women entrepreneurs to run high-growth businesses,” the IFC said in a statement.
i2i Ventures, set up by Kalsoom Lakhani and Misbah Naqvi in 2019, provides crucial early-stage financing for startups and backs founders by providing them with hands-on support.
“We saw firsthand both how hard it was to build businesses in Pakistan, and how resilient Pakistani founders were as a result,” Naqvi said. “i2i Ventures was born from that experience of seeing up close the potential of startups in the market, and the need for founder-centric investors who understood business and market challenges and could support their growth at the early stage.”
Zeeshan Sheikh, IFC country manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan, said his corporation aimed to ensure startups continue to access crucial funding and support.
“There is tremendous potential in Pakistan for startups to develop and scale up new technologies and tech-enabled business models that address issues such as climate change or help increase access to quality education, health care, and financial services, among others,” he said.
“But early-stage entrepreneurs, and particularly women, face significant challenges in accessing the resources they need to launch and grow their businesses. Tackling this is critical to build ecosystems that boost innovation and entrepreneurship.”
IFC’s Startup Catalyst Program, launched in 2016, has supported 22 accelerators and seed funds that have invested in over 1,180 startups in 24 emerging markets so far, according to corporation.
Earlier this month, DealCart, a Pakistani e-commerce startup focused on transforming the way consumers access essential goods, successfully raised $3 million in a funding round led by leading Middle East investment fund, Shorooq Partners.
IFC invests $3 million in Pakistan’s first women-led venture capital fund
https://arab.news/rtgep
IFC invests $3 million in Pakistan’s first women-led venture capital fund
- Pakistan’s i2i Ventures accelerator provides early-stage funding to startups
- The venture capital fund backs founders by providing them hands-on support
Sindh assembly passes resolution rejecting move to separate Karachi
- Chief Minister Shah cites constitutional safeguards against altering provincial boundaries
- Calls to separate Karachi intensified amid governance concerns after a mall fire last month
ISLAMABAD: The provincial assembly of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Saturday passed a resolution rejecting any move to separate Karachi, declaring its territorial integrity “non-negotiable” amid political calls to carve the city out as a separate administrative unit.
The resolution comes after fresh demands by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other voices to grant Karachi provincial or federal status following governance challenges highlighted by the deadly Gul Plaza fire earlier this year that killed 80 people.
Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and most densely populated city, is the country’s main commercial hub and contributes a significant share to the national economy.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah tabled the resolution in the assembly, condemning what he described as “divisive statements” about breaking up Sindh or detaching Karachi.
“The province that played a foundational role in the creation of Pakistan cannot allow the fragmentation of its own historic homeland,” Shah told lawmakers, adding that any attempt to divide Sindh or separate Karachi was contrary to the constitution and democratic norms.
Citing Article 239 of Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution, which requires the consent of not less than two-thirds of a provincial assembly to alter provincial boundaries, Shah said any such move could not proceed without the assembly’s approval.
“If any such move is attempted, it is this Assembly — by a two-thirds majority — that will decide,” he said.
The resolution reaffirmed that Karachi would “forever remain” an integral part of Sindh and directed the provincial government to forward the motion to the president, prime minister and parliamentary leadership for record.
Shah said the resolution was not aimed at anyone but referred to the shifting stance of MQM in the debate while warning that opposing the resolution would amount to supporting the division of Sindh.
The party has been a major political force in Karachi with a significant vote bank in the city and has frequently criticized Shah’s provincial administration over its governance of Pakistan’s largest metropolis.
Taha Ahmed Khan, a senior MQM leader, acknowledged that his party had “presented its demand openly on television channels with clear and logical arguments” to separate Karachi from Sindh.
“It is a purely constitutional debate,” he told Arab News by phone. “We are aware that the Pakistan Peoples Party, which rules the province, holds a two-thirds majority and that a new province cannot be created at this stage. But that does not mean new provinces can never be formed.”
Calls to alter Karachi’s status have periodically surfaced amid longstanding complaints over governance, infrastructure and administrative control in the megacity, though no formal proposal to redraw provincial boundaries has been introduced at the federal level.
