Neem, a Pakistani embedded finance platform, has raised $2.5 million in a pre-investment round to help unbanked communities in the country. The Karachi-based startup targets communities across various industries including agriculture, SMEs, e-commerce, logistics and healthcare. It provides a lending platform that the subsidiary uses to offer specialized financial products to consumers and its SMEs. Neem is also working on a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, due to launch in December, where partners will integrate wallets and payments and create services such as savings accounts and insurance tailored to specific community needs. We can offer financial products.
Nadeem Shaikh, Vladimira Briestenska and Naeem Zamindar, formerly fintech entrepreneurs, operators and VCs, founded Neem three years ago. “Most [current] players offer B2C solutions. We are a B2B2C solution. There is a $167 billion opportunity in the embedded banking sector,” Shaikh told TechCrunch..COVID has enabled Nimes to integrate its financial services with the private and public sectors.
Shaikh explained that according to industry statistics, there are currently 53 million unbanked people in Pakistan. In the future, the company plans to support people who do not have bank accounts in developing countries other than Pakistan.
The company received seed capital from Hong Kong company SparkLabs Fintech. With this, it plans to expand its current team of 20 to adopt the BaaS platform and leverage licensing. Pakistani investment banks Arif Habib, Cordoba Logistics and Ventures, Taara Ventures, My Asia VC, Concept Vines and Building Capital also participated in the funding round. A veteran of the fintech industry, he was a founding partner of Mentors Fund and the former CEO of Seccl also participated in the staking round along with partners from Outrun Ventures.
