Pakistan’s leading mobile wallet Finja, backed by the FINCA Microfinance Bank announced Series A funding of USD 1.5 million. The round is led by Vostok Emerging Finance, a listed investment company on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Vostok had earlier invested in Finja through a convertible note last year, and they are joined by investor Gray Mackenzie Engineering Services, a Descon company.
Finja’s product SimSim was the first mobile wallet to be granted a license by the State Bank of Pakistan. Currently, SimSim; the mobile wallet boasts of 80,000 accounts since its launch in August 2017. SimSim has been a pioneer in the local fintech industry and definitely takes the credit for introducing the ‘one-minute bank account opening’ in Pakistan. Co-founders at Finja include Monis Rahman, Qasif Shahid and Umer Munawer.
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Qasif Shahid, Co-Founder and CEO of Finja said:
In a few short months, our dream of digitizing payments in Pakistan
through zero transaction fees is becoming a reality.
Monis Rahman Co-Founder and Chairman of Finja added:
This financing round by notable international and local investors is a strong
vote of confidence for our early traction and the potential of the Pakistani market
Thus far, SimSim has clocked more than Rs. 1.5 billion in transactions through peer to peer payments, QR code led merchant payments, an e-commerce marketplace, bill payments and mobile top-ups. All transactions through SimSim are completely free with zero transaction fees aiming to accelerate digital payments in Pakistan.
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David Nangle, partner at Vostok Emerging Finance said,
“We are delighted to participate again in Finja’s Series A and are very pleased with the execution of the team in this large untapped high barrier to entry market.”
The SimSim bank account takes less than a minute with real-time NADRA identify verification and artificial intelligence algorithms carried out on the user’s mobile phone.
