Tania Aidrus & Khurram Jamali’s Fintech Program Receives $17.6m Funding

Started by ex Google execs, Tania Aidrus and Khurram Jamali, Sequoia Capital, the world's most influential venture capital firm, has made its first investment in Pakistan, joining a growing list of high-profile investors who have backed young companies in the South Asian market in the last year.

Dbank, based in Islamabad, announced on Thursday that it had raised $17.6 million in a seed round, the largest in Pakistan, co-led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, a recently launched $1 billion fund, and Kleiner Perkins. According to the Pakistani startup, Brazilian neobank Nubank, Askari Bank, and Rayn also participated in the round.

During an interview with an esteemed tech platform, Tania Aidrus, former Special Assistant for Digital Pakistan and current co-founder of Dbank, stated that it is a fintech startup that will try to expand the reach of financial services in Pakistan in a "transparent and friendly" way, taking on the informal and exploitative credit system.

Dbank will attempt to "democratize banking," according to Johan Surani, VP at Sequoia Southeast Asia, in a statement, but the startup wishes to keep its plans under wraps for the time being, according to Aidrus. She further emphasized how Dbank wants its users to be in control of their own assets and make decisions accordingly.

Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan, has aggressively explored opportunities in recent years to modernize the country's payments infrastructure. NADRA, a digital identity platform, was developed along with Raast, a real-time payments system.

Moreover, the central bank has introduced a new digital license allowing more players to serve as banks that accept deposits from customers without physical locations. Dbank is aiming to become an established digital retail bank in Pakistan.

Dbank plans to eventually build a customer-centric digital bank in the Pan-Islamic world beginning with Pakistan.