CreditBook raises $1.5M Seed investment to scale users and product offerings

Pakistani Fintech CreditBook that helps micro-entrepreneurs digitise and track their transactions raised $1.5 million in seed funding. The funding round involved a combination of international and local investors including UAE-based VentureSouq, US-based Fintech fund Better Tomorrow Ventures, Pakistan’s BitRate VC, Quiet Capital, Ratio Ventures, i2i Ventures and Toy Ventures.

Founded by Hasib Malik, Iman Jamall, Hisham Adamjee in June 2020, the startup hopes to serve Pakistan's burgeoning yet under-served Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through its digital platform. The startup not only hopes to facilitate MSMEs with their bookkeeping and cash flow management, but aims to boost economic activity in the country by empowering the small business community.

The startup has also witnessed immense growth during its first month of operations with thousands downloading the CreditBook app. Moreover, the CreditBook has been able to scale its operations to over 500,000 users over the last six months despite the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, the startup founders Iman Jamall and Hasib Malik were also part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list this year for their incredible work with CreditBook.

According to Co-founder Hasib Malik, “the journey has just begun, and we are confident we will be successful in creating a company that empowers the backbone of the economy through collaboration with some of the smartest and most empathetic people across the globe.”

Iman Jamall also explained that “with Pakistan’s increasing attractiveness as a frontier market, it’s very easy to get distracted by numbers. As we scale, it’s important for us to sense-check our growth and to make sure the growth is meaningful. The only way to do that is through spending time with our users. We’re also excited to have a strong group of investors who understand and support our approach.”

Impressed by the startup's ability to move fast and ship features regularly, Founding Partner at BitRate Faisal Aftab also believes that "this marks the start of a very exciting chapter for the company, given what we have seen from them with limited resources has been incredible, but to see what’s ahead is truly exciting for the entire ecosystem.”

In addition to this, Co-Founder and General Partner at VentureSouq Suneel Gokhale also commented that “we are always on the lookout for founders that are deeply tapped into their local markets, and are utilizing a user-centric approach as an advantage. The team at CreditBook have demonstrated their ability as market leaders with their understanding of their customers while bootstrapping the company, which has made their growth all the more impressive.”

CreditBook plans on using this new investment to scale its users and product offering as well as hire the best talent nationally and internationally to cement its place as market leader.