(Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s CreditBook, a firm that offers digital bookkeeping solutions to small businesses, has raised funds that marks the first investment by Tiger Global Management LLC in the nation’s booming startup space.
CreditBook has raised $11 million investment led by Tiger Global and Firstminute Capital LLP, according to a statement. Previous investors Better Tomorrow Ventures LLC, VentureSouq, Ratio Ventures Ltd. and i2i Ventures also participated in the current funding round.
The South Asian nation has seen funding in excess of $300 million this year into its nascent technology sector, more than in the previous six years combined. Pakistan has seen a wave of investments from many global venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins — an early investor in Google and Amazon.com Inc.
“We have been studying the country and understand the country is at an inflection point seen before in other emerging markets,” said Sam Endacott, a partner at Firstminute.
Startup Fever Grips Pakistan, World’s Last Big Untapped Nation
Small businesses in Pakistan mostly operate using a manual register and handwritten entries in a nation that is mostly cash-based but startups are looking to change that. The nation is home to as many as 30 million micro-, small- and medium-enterprises that operate manually and deal in cash. Udhaar Book, a Pakistani cashflow management services provider for small businesses, also raised $6 million in early funding last month.
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