Karachi October 5 2021: TPL e-Ventures is looking to establish itself as a significant player in the tech disruption ecosystem, participate in new investment opportunities and continue supporting its existing portfolio companies.
During the year, TPL e-Ventures continued underpinning its presence in the local ecosystem through collaboration and strategic partnership with key stakeholders. While exploring investment opportunities, together, with participating in follow-on funding round of portfolio companies remained its strategic focal point.
TPL e-Ventures took various initiatives to broaden its alliances in the ecosystem, including the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Incubation Centre (NIC) across Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in collaboration with TPL trakker. The MoU offers credit to startups, being incubated at NICs, of over PKR 35,000 to avail Location Based Services (LBS) by integrating TPL Maps into their Application Programming Interface (API). In addition, the Company signed up for the Amazon Web Services "Activate Program" (avail credit for cloud and other services up to USD 100,000; coupled with a Startup Mentorship, Free Consultation on Technical Roadmap, and Access to Global Investor Network).
The Company also participated in various local and international events arranged by renowned stakeholders; such as Investor Roundtable of 021 Disrupt Conference organized by the Nest IO and Innovation Matchmaking Conference organized by NIC Karachi, to name a few. The team also represented TPL e-Ventures as on Expert
Judges’ panels at Pitch Contests hosted by NIC Karachi as well as Unicorn Battle. During the year, TPL e-Ventures proactively assessed various startup opportunities in Digital Banking, Hospitality, EdTech, Automotive trading Platform, e-Logistics, e-Commerce and electric Vehicles. Eight were shortlisted and preliminary due diligence conducted, while two investment opportunities being negotiated with (one in HealthTech and second in electric vehicle mobility).
Performance of Portfolio Companies
TelloTalk - is an all-in-one chat application that integrates all C2C, B2C, and B2B communications. During FY21, the venture noted a significant growth in Daily Active Users and Monthly Active Users on account of new In- App features being launched. Furthermore, tellotalk executed a Service Level Agreement for Integration of Tellotalk Chat SDK Solutions for Web & Mobile application across TPL Group of companies namely TPL Insurance, TPL Trakker, and TPL life. However, the ma¡or achievement for the venture was closing a pre-series A funding round raising USD 1.1 mn successfully, wherein, TPL e-Ventures also participated by investing USD 100,000. Till date, the total investment yields an upside in value by 2.7 folds.
Rider -is an end-to-end digital logistics solution that allows businesses to deliver products to customers. During FY21, the venture launched a Micro Distribution Hub at LuckyOne Mall, Karachi; and expanded its warehousing as well as its front office, while unlocking operations in two new cities covering an additional 30 delivery locations. It also on-boarded thirty new merchants including five of the largest e-commerce retailers of Pakistan. These developments empowered Rider to achieve significant growth in delivery volumes of over 1.1 million deliveries to date, with 87% first attempt delivery success ratio, and a 16% positive contribution margin. In light of its growth potential, TPL e-Ventures participated in pre-seed funding round by making an investment of PKR 18.5 Mn.
In recent times, Pakistan based startups have gauged the interest of local and international investors leading to the Pakistan startup ecosystem to attain second position in South Asia region as stated in the "Global Startups Ecosystem Index 2021" report released by StartupBlink. Pakistan has also experienced a 97% increase in venture capital funding during 2020 as suggested in Emerging Venture Markets Report, 2021.
The combination of a large smartphone penetration of 102 million mobile broadband users and the lockdowns subsequent to the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated consumer behavior towards digital products. Startups in Fin†ech, EdTech, HealthTech and e-commerce and related e-supply chain and e-Logistics are emerging in Pakistan.
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