Pakistan’s largest bank, Habib Bank Limited has injected Rs.176 million or $ 1.15 million in the latest tranche of Finja’s Rs. 1.56 billion ($ 10.15 million) A1 series funding.
HBL joins the Finja Investor’s club which includes globally renowned names such as BeeNext, Vostok Emerging Finance, Quona Capital and ICU Ventures. All investors from previous rounds have increased investment in the Finja Series A1 funding round.
For HBL, investing in Finja serves two of the Bank’s strategic priorities, namely investing in digital finance and development finance, in particular in companies that impact agriculture and SMEs as the backbone of the economy, and actively re-discovering HBL to become ” a technology company with a banking license. “
After the Covid-19 pandemic that began last April, Finja expanded its digital loan portfolio by 550%, providing over 50,000 digital loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Although small businesses in Pakistan are the backbone of the economy, they have traditionally been unable to obtain credit for growth.
Kasif Shahid, CEO and co-founder of Finja said at the occasion:
We are delighted that HBL is participating in this funding round. Our pioneering success in undocumented small business digital labeling has resulted in a 64% increase in portfolio compared to the previous month since the pandemic that broke out earlier this year. There is no doubt that HBL’s finance, extensive network and progressive leadership will help us grow the country’s most important segment, SMEs.
Speaking on the occasion, Muhammad Aurangzeb, President and CEO of HBL, said:
We are delighted to invest in FINJA. The Pakistani fintech country has tremendous opportunities. At HBL, we believe that with this investment we are not only building an ecosystem of startups, but also setting the stage for Pakistan to play a more important role in the fintech space around the world. SME loans are the future, which is why we are investing in Finja, which is enjoying its first advantage in the digital loan market.
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