Patari raises US$ 200,000 in seed funding

Patari, an online music streaming platform, has just announced that it has raised US$ 200,000 of seed stage funding from Sarmayacar.

The details of the investment were released in a signing event that was held in Lahore. The sitting was attended by the presence of the whole Patari’s team. Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman PITB and Nabeel A. Qadeer, Director Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development, and Rabeel Warraich, the founder of Sarmayacar, were also present on the occasion.

Khalid Bajwa, the CEO of Patari, on the occasion said,

“Our success at Patari had been based on innovating quality products and investing in music. Our partnership with Sarmaycar will allow us to scale up and truly unleash the massive potential inherent in Pakistani music.”

Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman PITB, appreciating the startup, said,

“What started as an idea a few years ago has now spread like a wildfire across the country. Witnessing the remarkable growth of this startup culture and majorly being a part of it feels amazing. Investors believing in the passion and entrepreneurial skills of this young lot, confirms that this culture is here to stay for a long period of time. I wish Patari and emerging startups a successful and prosperous future.”

Patari launched its beta service in April of 2015 via a guerrilla marketing campaign that quickly went viral. In September of last year, the platform went live, rolling out mobile apps for iOS and Android in addition to its website. Patari has won the mBillionth award in India, the Pakistan’s Startup Cup and was placed second in the World Startup Cup. The service also won over the artist community after announcing Rs. 1.25 million in royalty payouts.

Ahmer Naqvi, the Director Content at Patari, said,

“Before Patari, the two truisms of the local music industry were that no one adheres to copyrights, and no one pays royalties. We were able to show that both can be done, and as such our story is a story of success not just for the music industry, but also an example of how Pakistanis are creating world-class tech products.”

Sarmayacar is an investor syndicate that primarily focuses on angel and seed stage investments. Rabeel Waraich, founder of Sarmayacar said that,

“We chose Patari because it is a startup driven by a dynamic team that will help revitalise the waning music industry of Pakistan. With Patari’s platform, we hope to propel the upcoming music scene to new heights and bring back the golden era of Pakistani music.”

Earlier this year, Patari had become the first digital partners from Pakistan in tech giant Facebook’s F8 program, allowing greater compatibility for Patari products within the Facebook platform. Patari has also secured several high-profile musical releases, including the exclusive digital rights to releases by artists like Noori, Mooroo, Uzair Jaswal and the soundtracks for films like Ho Mann Jahan and Bin Roye. It also released an EP called ‘Patari Aslis’, which comprised of original tracks by indie artists funded by Patari. One of the songs on the EP, Mehdi Maloof’s Do Hi Rastay Hain, went onto be nominated for a Lux Style Award.