Shorooq Partners Opens its First Office in Pakistan
We are excited to be granted approval by Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) for a Zone Enterprise license and will be opening our first office in Pakistan in the Islamabad Special Technology Zone (STZ). This adds to the foothold we already have across Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bahrain.
Earlier this year, we signed an MoU with the STZA to support efforts to build Pakistan’s technology ecosystem in the presence of the Honorable President of Pakistan Dr.Arif Alvi. We were keen to establish a physical presence in Pakistan to support local founders and other local investors through a series of ecosystem initiatives.
As part of our new office, we intend to invest and extend our one-of-a-kind value-creation arm to our portfolio companies in Pakistan and give them a real competitive advantage in the market.
We are proud to have been early with investing in Pakistan and we have done more than 10 investments in companies such as Airlift, PostEx, DigiKhata, Retailo, KTrade Securities, and Tazah Technologies.
In an article by Global Village Space, Chairman of STZA, Mr. Amer Hashmi, reinforced the government’s commitment to facilitating global venture capital firms in the Special Technology Zones. “The presence of a VC firm like Shorooq Partners will be significant for Pakistan as it will bring global best practices that will enable Pakistani tech entrepreneurs and investors to forge connections on a global level, tap into other markets, and learn from top-tier founders and investors.”
“As part of our new office, we intend to invest and extend our one-of-a-kind value-creation arm to our portfolio companies in Pakistan and give them a real competitive advantage in the market.”
We already have five offices across the region and our plan is to open our sixth office in Pakistan in the Islamabad Technopolis STZ to deepen our commitment, and, significantly build Pakistan’s ecosystem, and, to further support our portfolio companies with our value-creation arm. We have also appointed a Country Manager lead for Pakistan who will soon join to lead the practice in Pakistan.
“At Shorooq Partners we’ve had a long-standing thesis on the growing importance of Pakistan and of Pakistani start-ups in the global tech space. As we spend more time meeting local founders and understanding the Pakistani ecosystem our conviction grows that Pakistani start-ups have the ability to be a major disruptive force on a global level” said Shane Shin, Co-Founding Partner at Shorooq Partners.
We expect Pakistan’s first home-grown unicorn to emerge in the next few months, and the momentum from this will push the Pakistani tech ecosystem to the next stage of growth.”
STZA will work closely with Shorooq Partners as it expands its footprint across Pakistan as part of its mandate to facilitate inclusive growth and innovation in STZs across the country. This partnership will see a significant impact on the startup ecosystem by enabling technology growth companies to become leading players on both a regional and global level.
