Pakistan’s Neem raises $2.5M to serve underbanked communities with its embedded finance platform

Pakistan's embedded finance platform has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round to support underbanked communities.

The startup is based in Karachi and targets communities in various sectors. Its partners use the lending platform to provide tailored lending products to consumers. A Banking-as-a-service platform, which will go live in December, will onboard partners and offer financial products such as insurance and savings tailored to specific community's needs.

Three-year-old Neem was founded by three people who used to work as operators and VCs.

We are a B2B2C solution, unlike most of the other players. The embedded finance space is worth $167 billion, according to Shaikh.

The strong growth in digital has helped in the integration of its finance services.

More than 50 million people in Pakistan are underbanked. Underbanked communities in other developing markets will be supported by the startup.

The startup's seed funding was led by a Hong Kong-based company. Pakistan's investment banking firm Arif Habib was one of the companies that took part in the funding round. The founding partner at Mentors Fund and the ex-CEO of Seccl were among those who participated in the seed round.

William Chu, Managing Partner, said that they have full confidence in the leadership team to realise the vision of financial wellbeing for underbanked communities.

The startup received seed funding before bootstrapping.