DealCart and NayaPay, two Pakistani startups, have been featured on Forbes Asia 100 To Watch List, which highlights up-and-coming small businesses and startups throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
This year’s list included businesses from 16 different nations and territories that operate in ten different industries, including manufacturing and energy, robotics and enterprise technology, and banking. With twenty enterprises, India is the most represented this year, followed by Singapore (15), Japan (9) and Indonesia (8).
DealCart, based in Karachi, was founded in 2022 and is an online grocery store catering to Pakistan’s expanding middle class.
Customers can order fresh fruit and vegetables, snacks, detergents and other sundries. Small grocery stores can also sell on DealCart to tap its customer base. In July, the firm raised $3 million in a seed funding round co-led by Abu Dhabi-based Shorooq Partners and London-based Sturgeon Capital, Forbes highlighted.
Fintech startup NayaPay, founded in 2016, operates a payments processing platform in Pakistan, aiming to help digitalize transactions between consumers and businesses.
Online payments, virtual debit cards, and e-wallets are all supported by the NayaPay app. NayaPay also provides point-of-sale systems that may be deployed in retail locations for companies. According to Forbes, the financial business raised $13 million in a 2022 seed investment round headed by Graph Ventures, MSA Novo, and Zayn Capital.
In addition to inviting accelerators, incubators, universities, venture capitalists, and others to suggest firms, Forbes Asia also invited online applications from companies in order to choose the finalists on the 100 to Watch list. Companies had to be privately held, for-profit operations with headquarters in the Asia-Pacific area, with yearly revenue no more than $50 million and total capital no more than $100 million until August 7 in order to be eligible for consideration.
Forbes Asia team evaluated each submission, weighing factors such as impact on and contribution to their industry and region, market fit, promising business model, innovation, track record of consistent revenue growth and the ability to attract funding.
