Pakistan’s startups attracted a measly $3 million in the first half of 2024, a massive 92% lower year-on-year, showed data released by Magnitt, a data analytics platform, in its report.

The decline in Pakistan startup funding was the biggest drop in emerging markets that are covered by Magnitt, showed the report ‘H1 2024 Emerging Venture Markets Venture Investment’.

“In H1 2024, Emerging Venture Markets (EVM), which include the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan, Turkiye and South East Asia, saw a significant transformation with total funding reaching $3.469 billion, a 34% decrease from H1 2023.

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“The number of deals also declined across EVMs, with a total of 618 deals, representing a 34% decrease YoY,” read the report, adding that exits declined by 51.

“Fintech stood out as the leading sector, securing $1.097 billion in funding across 128 deals while Singapore led the region, capturing 38% of the total funding,” it added.

Meanwhile, Pakistani startups were only able to grab five deals in the six months, a significant decline of 77% as compared to the same period last year.

As per the report, South East Asia (SEA) led the pack with $2,209 million in funding, despite a 31% decline from H1 2023, capturing 64% of total H1 2024 EVM funding. This region also saw the highest deal activity with 235 deals.

The Middle East, Pakistan, and Turkiye (MEPT) regions collectively secured $665M in funding, an 18% YoY decrease, while their deal count fell by 14%, marking lowest declines across all regions, it added.

In 2023, Pakistan’s startups had attracted a meagre $75.6 million, 77.2% lower year-on-year, as experts termed the drastic fall to the ‘normalising’ situation where high interest rates and a global tight-fisted environment took toll on fund-raising endeavours.

This is a far cry from calendar year 2021 when Pakistan’s startups raised a record amount followed by another impressive 12 months the next year.