Fintech Neem raises 2.5 million dollars – Avis
KARACHI: Neem Financial, an embedded finance startup, said on Tuesday that it has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round from global and local investors.
Embedded finance companies are technology firms that integrate financial services traditionally offered by banks into the product portfolio of non-financial entities.
The mission to bring an embedded finance model to Pakistan with a market opportunity of $167 billion has been supported by investors including SparkLabs Fintech, Arif Habib Ltd, Cordoba Logistics and Ventures Ltd, Taarah Ventures, My Asia VC, Concept Vines, Building Capital, Partners in Outrun Ventures and strategic angels such as CSO in technology house BPC, Founding Partner in Mentors Fund, as well as fintech veteran and ex-CEO in Seccl and others.
Neem’s embedded finance platform includes two core offerings – a Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform and a lending platform. The BaaS platform allows partners to embed wallets and payments into their communities, as well as offer financial products such as insurance and savings tailored to the community’s needs.
The lending platform allows partners to offer tailored lending products for both consumers and MSMEs.
Neem is co-founded by Nadeem Shaikh, Vladimira Briestenska and Naeem Zamindar, the statement said.
“We strongly believe in Neem’s ability as a leading embedded finance platform to drive financial inclusion in Pakistan which aligns well with the core values of Arif Habib Group,” Shahid Ali Habib, CEO of Arif Habib Ltd, was quoted as saying in the press release.
In an earlier interview with Dawn, Managing Director Misbah Khalil Khan of Cordoba Logistics and Ventures Ltd.
Neem provides back-end services and technology support to startups that offer digital wallets and charge a service fee.
Neem champions a financial wellness model, which includes giving individuals and businesses control through payments, meeting their needs through credit, absorbing their risks through access to insurance and ensuring financial freedom through savings and investments, the statement said.
“We simply need to go beyond just providing access to a bank account,” said Vladimira Briestenska, co-founder at Neem.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, almost 53 percent of Pakistan’s adult population and 3.3 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are currently economically excluded. Neem embeds financial products and services in underbanked communities across various sectors including agriculture, MSME, e-commerce, logistics and healthcare, it added.
Offer for the supply of frozen meat
Al-Shaheer Corporation Ltd told investors on Tuesday that it has signed a business relationship agreement with McDonald’s Pakistan for the supply of beef products through the company’s frozen food facility in Lahore.
The company noted that it is the first Pakistani company ever to enter into such a business agreement with McDonald’s Pakistan.
“We expect this deal to have a positive impact on (the company’s) revenue and profitability, thereby generating returns for our shareholders,” it said.
Share price of the company rose 0.75 percent to Rs 10.68 apiece on Tuesday.
It posted a loss of Rs 104.3 crore in the quarter ended March 31, against a profit of Rs 17.3 crore a year ago. However, the company’s revenue increased by almost 21 percent from the previous year due to the new frozen food business, which was launched during the previous (October-December) quarter in addition to the “strong growth in institutional sales business”.
The company attributed the net loss in the January-March quarter to the launch of its frozen food segment, which was in the “starting phase of its business cycle” and thus showed “operating losses”.
Published in Dawn, 14 September 2022
