TAG Fintech, the $100 million Pakistani startup entering new markets
Middletown, DE – (NewMediaWire) – January 5, 2023 – (NYPressWire) – In mid-2021, Pakistani fintech startup TAG Fintech raised $5.5 million in its first round of investment. This has become one of the 5 largest deals in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. And that was just the beginning of the company’s meteoric rise. According to CTO of TAG Fintech, Alexander Lukianchuk, the company became one of the most valuable startups with a total investment of more than $12 million, when the company closed its seed investment round right after graduating from Y-Combinator.
“We raised the largest seed round in South Asia, with the last investors in the round valuing the startup at $100 million,” said Alexander Lukianchuk.
Brief information: TAG Fintech was founded in 2020. The company provides access to digital banking services. The user can quickly open a bank account and get a Visa debit card. There are direct payments to mobile network operators to top up the account, tools, transfers in the bank by selecting a contact from the contact list, as well as standard interbank transfers and other functions.
At the end of 2022, the situation in TAG has changed slightly. In the process, the startup ran into hurdles with the EMI license in Pakistan. However, the situation is more of a reason to expand outside of Pakistan than a reason to withdraw. As of today, TAG may well become an international player in the Middle East with the prospect of becoming a unicorn startup.
“Prior to co-founding TAG Fintech, I had gained my fintech experience both in the corporate world at Deutsche Bank, and then gained startup expertise at FxPro, Naspay and N26,” said Alexander Lukianchuk.
“The Middle East and Asia is not a single market, but it has great prospects” Talal Ahmad Gondalfounder of TAG Fintech, said that in Pakistan, most of the population does not have access to banking services, and such a project provides access to a service that is common in Europe.
More than 225 million people live in Pakistan. There are well-established traditions in the banking sector that need to be transformed in line with global fintech trends. And this is the fundamental goal of TAG Fintech.
“We are ambitious to introduce the best solutions to the industry. Before TAG, I had the opportunity to gain experience from other fintech companies,” says Alexander Lukianchuk, “I led a team of more than 20 people to help launch the famous European neobank N26 in the US. I have built and led a technical team to develop and launch the Naspay payment gateway. I led an international team that created technical solutions for global financial markets, including the integration of the aggregation of over-the-counter foreign exchange transactions in Deutsche Bank, so we have something to offer the emerging market.
“Ever since I worked in the investment bank, I always liked the idea of arbitrage and the opportunities it offers. So I started thinking about how to use this idea and I quickly realized that fintech in emerging markets would be good for that. Emerging markets, especially in Africa and the Middle East, have great growth potential, but they lack high-quality financial services. And by providing them, we help people improve their lives faster,” added CTO of TAG Innovation, Alexander Lukianchuk.
$100 million startup, TAG Fintech
TAG became one of the most valuable startups when it graduated from Y-Combinator in 2021. The company raised the largest seed round in South Asia. The last investors in the round valued the startup at $100 million.
“I am sure that a good combination of such factors as a large market with great potential, high quality and precisely selected team members with relevant experience and track record, participation in Y-Combinator, and the fact that we had managed to attract top American investors already in the previous Pre-Seed round, helped us achieve this level of success, so Alexander Lukianchuk. “We ended up with investor competition for the round, and this is the recipe for a successful conclusion of the round.”
Such investments made it possible to create an entire fintech product from scratch. Account opening in three minutes and access to Visa cards. The main factors in choosing a card network were logistical convenience and loyalty. Visa Company quickly agreed on the support package, allocated BIN area, and also offered to implement their accelerated program for fintech startups.
It took TAG Fintech just 3 months to launch working cards on their own BIN range. And that’s pretty fast by industry standards.
In the future, we plan to expand the types of payment cards and add functions such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, simplified confirmation of online transactions.
As of today, TAG Fintech is preparing to enter new markets. And apparently we will soon see the presence of the company in other regions of Asia, the East.
More details about press release visit website.
Media details:
TAG Fintech
Lukianchuk
[email protected]
