A Pakistani fintech startup called Safepay raises 7 figure seed funding from global company

Safepay, a startup located in Karachi, raised upto nearly a 7 figure seed funding in USD from a global financial technology company called Stripe.

The startup was founded in 2019 by Ziyad Parekh and Raza Naqvi which became the first fintech company to have graduated from the Y Combinator in the 2020 batch. Through the Y Combinator program, the startup had initially raised a standard of 150,000$.

Safepay is basically a payment gateway for online businesses and other startups which enables them to receive card payments from their customers. This is done through easy-to-use solutions where companies can integrate a payment method to either their websites or mobile application.

This service was initially launched in Beta version back in 2019 and has now been scaled up to over 300 merchants and businesses in the country. However, the services went offline for a year as the startup aimed at further acceleration and expansion which required a framework with key financial partners.

According to the co-founders, the company aims to launch all the complete services once proper arrangements have been made with the State Bank of Pakistan.

The vision of Safepay is to enhance the digital payment infrastructure in Pakistan and reduce the reliability on direct cash and other current payment methods.
According to the startup’s co-founder Ziyad Parekh:
“We want to work in improving digital payment infrastructure in Pakistan to decrease the reliance on cash and other OTC transactions, regardless if this is in a business-to-customer, business-to-business or government-person context. We feel we are in a strong position to develop innovative payment solutions to facilitate such transactions. Our ultimate goal is to increase the size of the online economy in Pakistan.”

Stripe, on the other hand, has been well known for its investments in fintech startups such as PayMongo and PayStack which operate respectively in the Philippines and Africa region.
Noah Pepper, Stripe’s business lead for the Asia Pacific region, discussed about the potential of Safepay in the following statement:
“The Safepay team’s solutions will be an important contribution to the future of Pakistan’s economy. We love backing founders who really know their markets and have the vision to help local businesses. Their commitment to increase digital payments in Pakistan will become even more vital as Pakistan continues to pursue a fully digital economy and increases its role in global trade.”