Pakistan’s FinTech OneLoad Raises 11 Million in Series A Round

Pakistan’s fintech OneLoad has raised $11 million in a series A round. Fintech focuses on tapping the world’s third-largest unbanked population. The latest investment round was led by Sarmayacar and Shorooq Partners, with participation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Strategic Investment Fund, its first investment in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s FinTech OneLoad Raises 11 Million in Series A Round

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OneLoad is the largest non-banking digital transaction platform in Pakistan and serves several million customers each month. Many small shopkeepers download and use OneLoad’s android application. It partners with banks and telecom companies to offer services including payments, cash deposits and lending.

The company hopes to become the “largest banking platform in the country for the unbanked world, the financially excluded market,” Muhammad Yar Hiraj, founder and chief executive officer at OneLoad said in an interview. “The aim is to become the largest micro branch for the unbanked without actually owning any branch.”

Last year, OneLoad operates through its 40,000 agents and did about $100 million. The company wants to increase daily transactions to one million a day from the current level of up to 400,000.

Just recently, Pakistani FinTech startup Dbank raised $17.6 million in a seed funding round, the largest ever in Pakistan. Dbank is in the process of building a user-centric digital banking system based on ethical banking. Dbank is connected to government-led initiatives to modernize the country’s payment infrastructure to increase financial inclusion.

See Also: Dbank Raises Largest Seed Round in Pakistan at $17.6M