Pakistan-based Tag has closed a $12 million seed round which takes the startup's value to $100 million. What this round means for Tag is that it has raised $17.5 since its launch, and it is now the largest seed financing round in the South Asian market.
“We are trying to become both Revolut and Paytm in Pakistan,” Tag founder and chief executive Talal Gondal
Most of the investors in this round were making their debut in Pakistan. This included Liberty City Ventures, Canaan Partners, Addition, Mantis, and Banana Capital.
“Liberty City Ventures is proud to support a visionary leader like Talal in his efforts to expand financial inclusion for the underserved and underbanked,” said Murtaza Akbar, managing partner at Liberty City Ventures, in a statement. “We expect the world class team he has assembled at TAG to build a regional fintech powerhouse.”
Tag partners with public and private firms to offer their employees banking services, including getting their salaries on the Tag account and Visa-powered virtual and physical cards. Signing up on Tag — which includes some verification of an individual’s identity — just takes three minutes, he said.
It also provides a range of B2C offerings, such as the ability to pay others online and top-up utility bills that are available to any user in Pakistan who signs up to the platform.
“We eventually want to offer the complete set of banking and financial services to users in Pakistan,” Tag CEO.
Tag will use its new war chest to scale its product offerings and hire talent to win the market's trust.
Pakistan in focus
GDP: $263.687 billion in 2020 compared to $278.222 billion in 2019
Population: 220,892,331 in 2020 compared to 262,565,317 in 2019
GDP per capita: $1,193 in 2020 compared to $1,284 in 2019
