DigiKhata, NIC based startup, is helping small businesses digitize bookkeeping
Pakistani startup DigiKhata has raised $2 million in a seed round led by Chinese VC MSA Capital, and joined by Shorooq Partners, SOSV, +92 Ventures, and other angel investors.
The Faisalabad-based fintech DigiKhata, a National Incubation Center (NIC) based startup, empowers micro, small and medium businesses by providing a platform to easily and safely manage business transactions digitally on mobile phones.
Empowering small businessess
Founded in 2020 by Adnan Aslam, DigiKhata helps traders replace traditional practice anc digitize their bookkeeping by recording financial transactions online. It also sends automated reminders to customers for (due) payments, helping merchants recover debts.
Adnan, who is a chartered accountant by profession, has held finance and accounting roles at different companies in Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, and South Africa.
DigiKhata’s founder and CEO Adnan said that MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) sector contributes significantly to the Pakistani economy in terms of GDP, exports and employment. “If empowered with the right tools and resources, their value addition to the economy can grow manifolds. With this round of funding, we are looking to scale our team and continue building world-class utility solutions to help these MSMEs generate real economic value and grow,” he said in a statement.
Largest network of MSMEs in Pakistan
The founders are optimistic that the funding will help them with their expansion plans in the coming future.
“What we’re building is the largest network of MSMEs in Pakistan. We already have a lot of inbound interest from multiple organizations that want to offer different types of products and services to our userbase” he said.
MSA Capital representative said that “MSMEs represent the largest transactional sector in Pakistan and DigiKhata ais building a critical set of tools to significantly enhance their efficiency and scalability.”
Shane Shin, the founding partner of Shorooq Partners, said that as founder partners, they are “excited to work with Digikhata and look forward to leveraging our strong regional network to support Adnan and the team’s expansion across the GCC and broader MENA region.”
1 million active users, 300,000 businesses
With 1 million active users and 300,000 businesses on board in a year, DigiKhata has become Pakistan’s no. one digital bookkeeping application. Both Android and iOS versions of the app are available.
The Khata app has been specially designed for merchants dealing with micro, small and medium businesses and provide them with an alternate platform to manage their account records digitally.
DigiDokaan
Realizing the potential, the startup team has launched DigiDokaan – a digital platform that helps small stores, retailers, mobile and electronics sellers, décor and interior, and textile-related products etc to sell online. DigiDokaan has helped users set up 50,000 stores, claimed the startup. Its distinctive feature allows sellers to set up an online shop in 30 seconds, empowering many small businesses to move towards e-commerce to reap the rewards of the pandemic shift online.
Other local competitors of DigiKhata include Uhdaar, CreditBook and Bazaar’s Easy Khata.