2021: A Banner Year For Pakistani Tech Startup Investments

The year 2021 is turning out to be a banner year for Pakistani tech startups. At the end of the third quarter of the current year, technology startups have already raised $278 million, twice the funding raised in the previous 5 years combined. In per capita terms, this is still just over $1 per person, a lot less compared to neighboring India where startups attracted $20 per person

Venture Capital Investment in Pakistan. Source: Kalsoom Lakhani, i2...

The third quarter (July-Sept 2021) alone has seen startup companies raise $172.6 in 17 deals closed in the three-month period, according to data compiled by Kalsoom Lakhani of i2i ventures. The top deals closed in the third quarter were: 1. Airlift $85 million series B 2. Bazaar $30 million in series A and 3. QisstPay $15 million seed round. 

Source: Kalsoom Lakhani, i2i Ventures

The lion's share of the ,money ($117 million) went to E-commerce startups followed by Fintech ($35 million) and trucking platforms ($13.6 million). Male-founded startups got 46.5% while female-founded companies received 1.7% with the rest of the money going to startups whose founding teams include both male and female founders. 

Venture Funding in Pakistan Lowest Among Most Populous Nations. Sou...


In per capita terms, startup investment in Pakistan is still just over $1 per person, a lot less compared to neighboring India where startups attracted $20 per person. As expected, the startups in the United States dwarfed all other countries in both per capita terms ($808) and in total size ($269 billion) of venture capital investments. 

 
Largest Global Market For Venture Funding. Source: Crunchbase

Pakistan's technology sector is in the midst of an unprecedented boom. It is being fueled by the country's growing human capital and rising investments in technology startups. A recent tweet by Swedish fund manager Mattias Martinsson captured it well when he wrote, "Have followed Pakistan for 15 years. Can't recall any time time when VC activity was anywhere near we've seen in the last few months. Impact of reforms kicking in?".  New laws have made it easier to create startups and offered greater protection to investors.  Digital infrastructure has expanded with over 100 million smartphones and an equal number of broadband subscriptions. 

With expanding Internet infrastructure and rapidly growing user base, Pakistan is now seeing robust growth in venture money pouring into technology startups. Pakistani startups have already attracted more than $278 million in funding in 2021, more funds than all the money raised by Pakistani startups in their entire history. A recent example is Kleiner Perkins, a top Silicon Valley venture capital investment firm, that led a series A round of $17 million investment into Pakistani start-up Tajir. The startup operates an online marketplace for small store merchants in Pakistan. The announcement came via a tweet by Mamoon Hamid, a Pakistani-American Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins who led the investment. Last year, Tajir raised a $1.8 million seed round.  The company's revenue has increased by 10x since its seed round. 
Pakistan Technology Exports Trend 2007-2021. Source: Arif Habib

Pakistan's technology exports are experiencing rapid growth in double digits over the last decade. Total technology exports jumped 47% to $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2020-21. 
Pakistan University Enrollment Growth. Source: Encyclopedia of High...
The foundation for Pakistan's digital transformation was laid with the higher education reform and telecommunications deregulation and investments starting in the year 2001 on President Musharraf's watch. With a huge increase in higher education funding, Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr. Ata ur Rehman succeeded in establishing 51 new universities during 2002-2008. As a result, university enrollment (which had reached only 275,000  from 1947 to 2003) soared to about 800,000 in 2008. This helped build a significant human capital that drove the IT revolution in Pakistan.      
Please watch the following video presentation for more details on Pakistan's technology startup ecosystem:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ePApXOM3vkQ"; title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>" height="315" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" width="560" style="cursor: move; background-color: #b2b2b2;" /> 
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Comment by Riaz Haq on October 6, 2021 at 8:51am

#Pakistan #agriculture #startup Tazah gets #2 million pre-seed funding. It screens produce for quality, removes rotten produce. It sorts into categories for specific types of buyers. Now it offers 5 products: ginger, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes & onions. https://tcrn.ch/3lgDm7C

The founders of Tazah Technologies, a B2B agriculture marketplace in Pakistan, met while serving leadership roles at Uber subsidiary Careem. Abrar Bajwa and Mohsin Zaka bonded during long working hours as the platform dealt with COVID-19’s impact. Eventually, the two started talking about creating their own startup. When asked how they got from ride-hailing to agri-tech, Bajwa told TechCrunch that the two grew up in farming communities. “We are from central Punjab and every family there has something to do with agriculture,” he said. “We had seen firsthand how farmers, or people who are involved in small holder farming, do not encounter social mobility based on how the deck is stacked against them.”

Agriculture is Pakistan’s biggest sector, contributing about 24% of its gross domestic product and employing half of its labor force, according to government statistics. But fragmented and complicated supply chains lead to inflated prices, food waste and low profits for farmers, all problems that Tazah wants to solve. The startup, which launched two months ago in Lahore, announced today it has raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Global Founders Capital and Zayn Capital. Other participants included Ratio Ventures, Walled City Co, i2i Ventures, Suya Ventures, Globivest, Afropreneur Syndicate, +92 Ventures, Sunu Capital, Musha Investments and angel investors like senior executives from ride-hailing platforms Careem and Swvl, where Bajwa worked before launching Tazah.

There are currently about 300 small- to medium-sized sellers buying inventory through the platform and it moves multiple truckloads of produce per day. Right now it offers five main kinds of products: ginger, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes and onions. Tazah plans to expand into other vegetables and fruits, but wants to ensure that it can guarantee consistent supply and quality. For example, instead of just serving as a marketplace to connect farmer and buyers, Tazah also screens produce for quality, removing rotten produce. Then it sorts them into categories for specific types of buyers.

For example, potatoes are separated into ones for households, restaurants, small retailers, or to be made into French fries, based on what Bajwa and Zaka learned during market research. “We have spent months in wholesale markets, we’ve interviewed hundreds of retailers and we got to know that standardization of product is needed in Pakistan,” said Bajwa. “We get into the bottom of operations, because retailers will know what exactly is in the sack.” This has resulted in a monthly retention rate of more than 80%, and most customers buy from the platform about four times a week.

“We’re not just a box-moving operation because in one sack of potatoes, there can be multiple rotten potatoes, so you don’t want to just buy from farmers and then give to retailers. That doesn’t add a lot of value,” said Zaka. Tazah is currently focused on small to medium-sized sellers who are overlooked by fast-moving consumer goods and grocery product inventory providers because they aren’t able to buy at sufficient bulk. It’s also started talking to other customer segments, including B2C marketplaces, grocery apps and stores.

Increasing farmers’ profits and reducing food waste
Tazah’s founders say fragmented supply chains mean that about 30% to 40% of produce is wasted because they perish or are damaged each time they are unloaded, warehoused and reloaded onto a truck. The company wants to fix that by creating a shorter, more streamlined logistics infrastructure. It plans to keep costs down by working with third-party warehouse and trucking providers instead of owning its own facilities.

Comment by Riaz Haq on October 6, 2021 at 8:54am

#Pakistan #agriculture #startup Tazah gets #2 million pre-seed funding. It screens produce for quality, removes rotten produce. It sorts into categories for specific types of buyers. Now it offers 5 products: ginger, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes & onions. https://tcrn.ch/3lgDm7C


“There is the traditional supply chain and we’re building a parallel customized supply chain that is a more efficient supply chain,” said Bajwa. “It’s almost like reinventing the wheel to build a supply chain that ensures products move as fast as possible from point of harvest to point of retail.” This means Tazah will make early investments as it works with its warehousing and trucking marketplaces for middle- and last-mile deliveries, establishing best practices for how to handle produce.

Since Tazah needs to make deliveries early in the morning, it operates small fulfillment centers in addition to warehouses to stay close to customers. Part of its new funding will be used to expand its fulfillment center network in Lahore, with the goal of being operational in the entire city by the middle of October, before expanding into new regions.

Over-harvesting also contributes to food waste, and one of Tazah’s goals is to build a data and analytics platform that will help farmers plan crops to make sure there is no oversupply in the markets they serve. Farmers typically sell their produce at markets, occasionally forming groups with other farmers. But they don’t have a lot of information about market places and supply/demand beyond their communities. They also often end up in debt to middlemen because they lack access to working capital.

While Tazah is currently focused on its supply chain work, it plans to eventually add financing options for farmers after doing research, like going through several more procurement cycles to understand what how much capital farmers need and how they are able to repay it. Some of the barriers they face include lack of formal credit histories or access to financial institutions that usually don’t open branches in rural areas. Sometimes they borrow working capital from intermediaries in the supply chain, or loan sharks who charge interest rates of more than 60%, creating cycles of indebtedness.

“Financing is something we are aggressively looking after because it’s a future play for us and we are working with farmers to know what they are doing, and how they are actually getting financing,” said Zaka.

Tazah’s founders hope to see more startups emerge to solve problems for Pakistan’s farmers. “Agriculture has been a mostly ignored sector in Pakistan from a technology perspective, and I think that as more people come into this, they’re going to help each other, as opposed to competing with each other,” said Bajwa. “We feel that as more people come in, it will be better because it will accelerate the problem solving in this very difficult space.

He added, “this is such a large space in Pakistan and it’s so inefficient that if we are even able to make a small dent, it’s going to lead to social uplift for hundreds or possibly thousands of farmers, improve the availability of fresh produce, result in less food tasted and reduce food price inflation.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on October 21, 2021 at 9:54am

#Pakistan's #Lahore-based #startup Colabs wants to build a community of 100,000 entrepreneurs and freelancers through its coworking spaces, business solutions, events, and educational programs. It currently has 700 members. #technology https://www.menabytes.com/colabs-pakistan/ via @MENAbytes

Colabs is a Lahore-based startup that aims to build Pakistan’s largest community of entrepreneurs and freelancers through its coworking spaces, business solutions, events, and educational programs. It was started in 2019 by twin brothers; Omar and Ali Shah, as a coworking company, and currently operates two spaces in Lahore, with a third on the way. On the surface, it seems like just another coworking operator but what sets it apart is its ambition to create the largest community of entrepreneurs and freelancers in the fifth largest country in the world.

“We want to knit together a community of 100,000 entrepreneurs and freelancers in Pakistan, starting with 5,000 seats within the next two years,” stated Colabs co-founder and CEO Omar Shah in a conversation with MENAbytes. He previously spent 7 years working in Dubai as private equity and venture capital investor in emerging markets including Mexico, UAE, Turkey, and Pakistan, before moving back home to Lahore in 2019, to establish Colabs. Ali Shah, Omar’s twin brother is a real estate developer in Lahore, who leads the family’s construction and development firm, Sabcon, which develops innovative and modern commercial buildings across Lahore in the past decade.

The startup currently has about 700 members who work from its spaces. It expects to add another 400 when it launches its third site early next year. But how can a coworking company in Pakistan with 700 seats build the capacity for 100,000 members over the next five to seven years, we asked Omar.

(For context, WeWork currently has a capacity of about 60,000 seats in India. It entered the market as a result of a joint venture with a local company in 2017 and has invested tens of millions of dollars to date.)

“As a family, we have been developing and managing properties in Lahore for many decades. Initially, it was traditional real estate but then Ali started Sabcon to do modern, innovative buildings a few years ago, so we understand the space very well. We can design our spaces for more efficient utilization than an average coworking operator and drive higher revenue per square foot at half the build cost. With all the learnings we have from our first two years, we’re ready to scale our spaces all over Pakistan. We’ve created a playbook that allows us to quickly turn buildings of different sizes into coworking spaces in a few months.”

When asked if there’s enough demand in Pakistan to sell 100,000 seats, he stated that the rate at which startup and freelance ecosystems of Pakistan are growing, they won’t have any issues in terms of demand, “It is more about creating the capacity to serve the demand.”

Colabs has been largely bootstrapped until now but to move forward with its expansion, it would need external money, “We had raised a small friend and family round when we started the company and didn’t have to raise any capital after that. We’re now considering raising a seed round as there’s a lot of inbound interest and we’re ready to scale our product.” said Omar, speaking to MENAbytes, without disclosing the details of how much they’re looking to raise. He said that the economics of the business are very strong and they’re profitable even today if they stop investing in growth.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 7, 2021 at 2:18pm

Udhaar Book, a #Pakistani #tech #startup providing cashflow management services for small businesses, raised $6 million seed from VCs like Muir Capital to digitize mom-and-pop stores. Pakistan’s startups have seen record funding rush this year. #Digital https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-07/pakistan-s-finte...

Udhaar Book, a Pakistani cashflow management services provider for small businesses, raised $6 million in early funding to digitize mom-and-pop stores that mostly operate using a manual register and handwritten entries.

The Karachi-based startup, whose parent is Toko Lab Inc., raised the money in seed funding from investors including Fatima Gobi Ventures, Plaid co-founder William Hockey’s Muir Capital, Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund LLC, Integra Partners and Commerce Ventures LLC.

Venture capital and private equity investors are ramping up investment in Southeast Asian nations and India. Startups in Pakistan too have seen the funding rush this year with inflows at a record about $300 million, which is more than the past six years combined, according to data from Crunchbase and Invest2Innovate.

Pakistan is mostly a cash-based economy but startups are looking to change that. The nation is home to as many as 30 million micro-, small- and medium-enterprises that operate manually and deal in cash. Many small business owners such as grocery shops are not able to expand since they need to keep an eye on drawer holding all the cash, Fahad Kamr, Udhaar’s co-founder said in an interview.

Udhaar Book that started last year has 1.4 million registered users and a little over half-a-million monthly active users. The company’s app allows small businesses digital book keeping, inventory, invoicing and payroll management along with other features.

“We’ve barely scratched the surface so obviously expanding the reach of the product is super important at this time,” said Kamr, who moved back from Canada for the venture and was previously a founding member of data portal Capital IQ. “That’s where a lot of the funding will also go.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 15, 2021 at 10:22am

Pakistani financial platform Abhi Pvt. raised funds at a $40 million valuation just four months after introducing its business that allows salaried employees to access funds before payday.

The Karachi-based company’s bridge round was led by U.A.E.-based Global Ventures, which invested for the first time in Pakistan, according to Chief Executive Officer Omair Ansari. U.S.-based Next Billion Ventures, VEF AB, Rally Cap Sarmayacar and VentureSouq also participated in the fundraising, along with TPL e-Ventures and i2i Ventures, he said.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/pakistan-startup...

Venture capital funds have ramped up investments in startups across Asia. Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous nation, received more than $300 million funding in startups this year, a record amount that is more than the past six years combined.

“Pakistan has trailed in its adoption to the internet economy and startup formation,” Noor Sweid, general partner at Global Ventures said in an interview. “The startup boom in Pakistan is attracting global attention.”

Abhi has seen “explosive growth” that’s prompted the bridge round, said Ansari, who left Morgan Stanley in New York and moved to Karachi for the startup. The company plans its Series A round early next year.

The early wage access platform will start operations in Bangladesh early next year, said Ansari. There is no such platform in Sri Lanka and countries in the Middle East, he said, providing expansion opportunities for the company.



The platform is an alternative to people asking their company, family or friends for cash, or making a credit card withdrawal to make ends meet until the next salary. The app takes less than 30 seconds and two clicks for a registered user to access the funds, with a flat 2% transaction fee. The funds are automatically deducted from the next paycheck. Abhi is also offering working capital to businesses.

The company is already working with 75 companies including ice cream joint Baskin-Robbins and online retailer Daraz in Pakistan. About half the staff at coffee chain Espresso have used the service after it went online, Ansari said in an interview at a co-working space in Karachi. The company is moving into a dedicated office next month.



Other than the app, about 10% users accessed funds by sending an SMS and 15% via WhatsApp. It plans to add more products including savings instruments. Abhi is set to become cash flow positive next month, the CEO said.

Co-founder Ansari was overseeing two funds at Morgan Stanley, and looking at investment opportunities in consumer companies and fintech in emerging and frontier markets. He had helped with early stage investments in fintech companies from China to Brazil.

He was also an adviser to VEF, which focuses on fintech in frontier and emerging markets. That’s when he came to the conclusion that Pakistan is being overlooked in terms of opportunities in that space.

“It didn’t make sense for me, Indonesia and Pakistan are literally the same country from a very 30,000-foot view,” said Ansari. “I’ve seen this work in other

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 17, 2021 at 7:57am

Pakistan Startups Draw Record Money, Helped by Covid and China's Tech Crackdown - Bloomberg


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-17/pakistan-startup...

The startup scene in the world’s fifth-largest nation is having a breakout year.

More money has flowed into Pakistan’s nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the U.S., Singapore and the United Arab Emirates joining the rush. And one former Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corp. employee has been involved in about half the fundraising deals.

Until 2018, Pakistan-born Aatif Awan was living the dream in Silicon Valley. After more than a decade working for tech heavyweights, he’d become an angel investor for American startups and bought a house in San Francisco. Then he went to visit his parents in Lodhran — a small town known for growing mangoes and cotton — and new opportunities became clear.


Many young nationals have left high-paying overseas jobs at places like Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & Co. and BNP Paribas SA to become entrepreneurs back home. The opportunity has also seen a few foreigners moving to Pakistan.

The country has “the last large population that hasn’t been tapped,” said U.S. citizen Jordan Olivas, 32, co-founder of QisstPay Inc. The Islamabad-based startup is modeled on Klarna Bank AB, a buy-now, pay-later fintech firm and Olivas’s former employer.



“Just the population size and the average age of the consumer alone creates a good market,” he said. “Up until this year there hasn’t been any big VC money coming in.”

In addition to rising interest from global venture capital companies, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is also benefiting from a growing network of local investors, incubators and shared working spaces. Pakistan’s government has also increased support for the tech sector after realizing its potential for exports.



The startup scene’s atmosphere is encapsulated at the Karachi offices of e-commerce startup Bazaar Technologies Pvt., which in August raised $30 million in the nation’s largest series A fundraising. Of more than a dozen investors, only one met with the company in person.


Tucked away in an old office building, it’s a modern workspace with gleaming floors and furniture that buzzes with casually dressed young workers. Co-founders Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, both 28, respectively worked in Dubai for McKinsey and ride-hailing company Careem Inc. before returning home last year to start Bazaar, which operates a business-to-business marketplace for grocery stores.

Just a few years ago, startups in Pakistan struggled to raise funding. Risk-averse banks routinely turned down loan applications from entrepreneurs, while most cash-rich businesses and other private investors were not even willing to speak with them.

“In 2012, there were zero significant funding sources,” said Kalsoom Lakhani, co-founder of investment fund i2i Ventures. “You really had to have the network in Pakistan to raise your funds for business.”

“If you fast forward, there has been a support system that has been growing in speed around the startups,” she said.



A number of risks could slow the funding momentum. Investors may lose faith if Pakistan’s pace of digital adoption is slower than expected — and banks with big pockets have been failing for decades to convince most of the population to take up bank accounts. An abrupt change of government policy — such as a more punishing tax regime or stricter regulation — would be a real threat to the fledgling tech sector. Investors may also find it difficult to exit through Pakistan’s stock market since startup valuations are high relative to listed companies, according to Suleman Rafiq Maniya, head of advisory at Vector Securities Pvt. Pakistan being on the monitoring list of the Financial Action Task Force, a financial watchdog, is also a concern for investors and has created extra hurdles for startups.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 17, 2021 at 7:58am

Pakistan Startups Draw Record Money, Helped by Covid and China's Tech Crackdown - Bloomberg


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-17/pakistan-startup...

For now though, there’s a lot of venture capital funding to be scooped up. “People realized this is a much larger force,” said Awan.

Several startups have found themselves attracting more money than they had initially sought, while ideas and the results of a small test-run can be enough to raise funds, according to people who asked not to be named since the matter is private. Some are also hiring staff at double or triple their current salary as they have money to spend, two of the people said.

“If you have a good team and a good idea, you’d come in and just revolutionize,” said Olivas. “There’s so much white space.”


Early-stage success stories include Airlift Technologies Pvt., a Lahore-based online shopping delivery platform, which in August raised $85 million in the nation’s largest single private funding round ahead of overseas expansion plans. Digital payments startup TAG Innovation Pvt. is now valued at $100 million after raising funds in September, while competitor SadaPay is projected to be the fastest-growing mobile wallet in the world in the five years to 2025, according to London-based fintech company Boku Inc. Neither company has begun fully fledged operations yet.

“What happened in China, India and Indonesia has started to happen in Pakistan, only faster,” said Awan. “The wheel has started turning now.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 18, 2021 at 10:48am

#Paytm Stock Collapses After #India’s Largest-Ever #IPO. A wave of IPOs has swept India this year with bullish sentiment focusing on high-growth #technology companies. But as Barron’s warned last month—“India’s tech IPOs look too pricey.”https://www.barrons.com/articles/paytm-stock-warren-buffett-india-i... via @BarronsOnline


Shares in Paytm dropped 27% Thursday in the group’s first day as a publicly traded company, after the fintech startup caught the attention of investors around the world in India’s largest-ever initial public offering.

Paytm (PAYTM.India) counts SoftBank (SFTBY), Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A and BRK.B), and Alibaba (BABA) among its backers, and has positioned itself as India’s answer to companies like China’s Ant Group. Its interests cover a range of finance and technology businesses but its primary focus is mobile payments.

Pricing its IPO at 2,150 Indian rupees, Paytm raised $2.5 billion in the largest float in Indian history. But the stock tumbled in its Mumbai trading debut, closing more than 27% lower at INR 1,560. Indian stocks have been on a tear over the past year, with the benchmark NIFTY 50 index up more than 39% from November 2020, compared with a 31% rise in the S&P 500.

A wave of IPOs has swept India this year with bullish sentiment focusing on high-growth technology companies. But as Barron’s warned last month—“India’s tech IPOs look too pricey.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 19, 2021 at 9:07am

Pakistan Receives $635 Million by Exporting the Information Technology Services

https://www.phoneworld.com.pk/pakistan-earns-635-million-by-exporti...


The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics is a federal agency of the Government of Pakistan tasked with providing reliable and comprehensive statistical research as well as commissioning national statistics services. According to figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the exportation of Information Technology services increased by 40.90 percent between July and September 2021, rising from $348.4 million in the previous financial year to $490.89 million this year. During the first quarter of the financial year 2021-22, Pakistan earned more than $635 million by supplying various IT services to different countries

-------------
Ovais
@Sabbandkardo
·
2h
Pakistan IT Exports in OCT 2021 were 195 M$
The momentum of IT exports persisted and IT exports are projected to reach around 2.5 B$ by FY end .
Pakistan should aim to reach 5 B$ soon
#PakistanMovingForward

https://twitter.com/Sabbandkardo/status/1461707968664285188?s=20

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 25, 2021 at 8:09am

#India's #Paytm shares fell 37% in the first two trading days after #PaytmIPO. The disappointing performance of India’s largest #IPO will cool sentiment a bit, but a dose of reality could make for a healthier market. #payments #tech https://www.wsj.com/articles/paytm-flop-will-skim-froth-off-indias-... via @WSJ

That poor performance bucks the trend of this year’s technology boom in India. IPOs amounted to $14.6 billion this year according to Dealogic—already a record amount. And investors have reaped big profits. Shares of food delivery company Zomato and FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which owns online cosmetic retailer Nykaa, have both more than doubled from their IPO price. Goldman Sachs expects another $50 billion worth of IPOs in the next two years. SoftBank-backed hotel chain Oyo and logistics company Delhivery have already filed to list. Money has also rushed into the private market: Venture capital investment last quarter amounted to a record $14 billion, according to KPMG.

The large size of Paytm’s IPO—it raised around $2.5 billion—is one reason why the market is dealing with a bout of indigestion. But the company also priced its IPO very aggressively given there is still no clear path to profitability. Strong competition from Google and Walmart -backed PhonePe and potential regulatory risks added to investor concerns.

The Indian market as a whole has also gotten a bit frothy. The MSCI India has gained 27% in 2021, making it one of the best performing markets in the world. China’s regulatory crackdown has probably sent some foreign investors hunting for growth in India. The MSCI China is down 17% in 2021 and technology giants like Alibaba and Tencent continue to be harried by regulators.

Individual investors in India have added another big push. The number of trading accounts and overall amount of retail equity ownership both hit new highs this year. There have also been record inflows into mutual fund investment plans.

Earnings growth has been strong but is also largely priced in already. The MSCI India is trading at a 60% premium to Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, according to Goldman Sachs—compared with a long-term average premium of 27%.

Given India’s huge potential—a country of 1.4 billion with low levels of internet service use—there is no lack of interest in jumping into the market. But the Paytm debacle is a timely reminder that the market isn’t willing to pay any price for that potential.

The flop probably won’t halt the coming unicorn stampede into India’s market. But their IPOs may need to be priced a little more reasonably.

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