Pakistan-based digital bookkeeping solution CreditBook has raised US$11 million in a pre-Series A round.
The round was led by Tiger Global and Firstminute Capital, and marks the first investment in Pakistan for both firms. Participating investors included VentureSouq, Ratio Ventures and i2i Ventures, as well as individual investors.
These included angels Julian Shapiro, Turner Novak, and Sriram Krishnan, and operators from Airbnb, Microsoft, Robinhood and Lazada.
Funding will be used to bolster the team, and develop value-added features for cash flow management, the company said.
Further, CreditBook is also looking to build and test financial products on top of its marquee digital bookkeeping offerings, although the company is yet to reveal what these products are, TechCrunch reported.
CreditBook was founded in 2020 by CEO Hasib Malik, Head of Design Iman Jamall, and Head of Operations Hisham Adamjee. It enables Pakistani MSMEs to maintain ledgers digitally and reconcile accounts automatically.
“For many, this is their first business management tool. Once they see an improvement in their cash flows, they come back to us with a sense of confidence, often searching for new ways to grow their business through the app. The connection between finance and welfare doesn’t seem out of reach anymore,”
Jamall said.
The company had last raised US$1.5 million from a group of investors including the UAE’s VentureSouq.
The company’s solution is accessed by merchants in more than 400 towns and cities, and has seen its user base grow by 10x since last year, the company said. The app processes over 2.4 million transactions every month.
CreditBook is one of several startups in Pakistan looking to migrate the country’s informal paper-based bookkeeping system, used by local micro enterprises, onto a digital format. Other companies building solutions aimed at this pain point include mKhata, DigiKhata, Udhaar Book and Bazaar.
“What we’re building is really a one-stop solution for entrepreneurs to improve their financial outcomes in multiple areas of life,”
Malik noted.
Featured image: CreditBook
